JERUSALEM — They had been constructed to be locations of therapeutic. However as soon as once more, three hospitals in northern Gaza are encircled by Israeli troops and underneath hearth.
Bombardment is pounding round them as Israel wages a brand new offensive towards Hamas fighters that it says have regrouped close by. As workers scramble to deal with waves of wounded, they continue to be haunted by a struggle that has seen hospitals focused with an depth and overtness hardly ever seen in fashionable warfare.
All three had been besieged and raided by Israeli troops some 10 months in the past. The Kamal Adwan, al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals nonetheless haven’t recovered from the injury, but are the one hospitals even partially operational within the space.
Medical amenities typically come underneath hearth in wars, however combatants normally depict such incidents as unintentional or distinctive, since hospitals get pleasure from particular safety underneath worldwide regulation. In its yearlong marketing campaign in Gaza, Israel has stood out by finishing up an open marketing campaign on hospitals, besieging and raiding at the very least 10 of them throughout the Gaza Strip, some a number of occasions, in addition to hitting a number of others in strikes.
It has mentioned this can be a navy necessity in its goal to destroy Hamas after the militants’ Oct. 7, 2023 assaults. It claims Hamas makes use of hospitals as “command and management bases” to plan assaults, to shelter fighters and to cover hostages. It argues that nullifies the protections for hospitals.
“If we intend to take down the navy infrastructure within the north, now we have to take down the philosophy of (utilizing) the hospitals,” Israeli navy spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari mentioned of Hamas throughout an interview with The Related Press in January after the primary spherical of hospital raids.
Most prominently, Israel twice raided Gaza Metropolis’s Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility within the strip, producing a video animation depicting it as a significant Hamas base, although the proof it introduced stays disputed.
However the concentrate on Shifa has overshadowed raids on different amenities. The AP spent months gathering accounts of the raids on al-Awda, Indonesian and Kamal Adwan Hospitals, interviewing greater than three dozen sufferers, witnesses and medical and humanitarian employees in addition to Israeli officers.
It discovered that Israel has introduced little and even no proof of a major Hamas presence in these instances. The AP introduced a file itemizing the incidents reported by these it interviewed to the Israeli navy spokesman’s workplace. The workplace mentioned it couldn’t touch upon particular occasions.
The Israeli navy has by no means made any claims of a Hamas presence at al-Awda. When requested what intelligence led troops to besiege and raid the hospital final yr, the navy spokesman’s workplace didn’t reply.
In latest weeks, the hospital has been paralyzed as soon as once more, with Israeli troops combating in close by Jabalia refugee camp and no meals, water or medical provides coming into areas of northern Gaza. Its director Mohammed Salha mentioned final month that the power was surrounded by troops and was unable to evacuate six essential sufferers. Workers had been all the way down to consuming one meal a day, normally only a flat bread or a little bit of rice, he mentioned.
As war-wounded poured in, exhausted surgeons had been struggling to deal with them. No vascular surgeons or neurosurgeons stay north of Gaza Metropolis, so the medical doctors typically resort to amputating shrapnel-shattered limbs to save lots of lives.
“We’re reliving the nightmares of November and December of final yr, however worse,” Salha mentioned. “We’ve got fewer provides, fewer medical doctors and fewer hope that something can be accomplished to cease this.”
The navy, which didn’t reply to a particular request for touch upon al-Awda hospital, says it takes all doable precautions to forestall civilian casualties.
Final yr, combating was raging round al-Awda when, on Nov. 21, a shell exploded within the facility’s working room. Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, two different medical doctors and a affected person’s uncle died nearly immediately, based on worldwide charity Medical doctors With out Borders, which mentioned it had knowledgeable the Israeli navy of its coordinates.
Dr. Mohammed Obeid, Abu Nujaila’s colleague, recalled dodging shellfire contained in the hospital advanced. Israeli sniper hearth killed a nurse and two janitors and wounded a surgeon, hospital officers mentioned.
By Dec. 5, al-Awda was surrounded. For 18 days, coming or going grew to become “a demise sentence,” Obeid mentioned.
Survivors and hospital directors recounted at the very least 4 events when Israeli drones or snipers killed or badly wounded Palestinians making an attempt to enter. Two girls about to provide start had been shot and bled to demise on the street, workers mentioned. Salha, the administrator, watched gunfire kill his cousin, Souma, and her 6-year-old son as she introduced the boy for therapy of wounds.
Shaza al-Shuraim mentioned labor pains left her no selection however to stroll an hour to al-Awda to provide start. She, her mother-in-law and 16-year-old brother-in-law raised flags product of white blouses. “Civilians!” her mother-in-law, Khatam Sharir, stored shouting. Simply outdoors the gate, a burst of gunfire answered, killing Sharir.
On Dec. 23, troops stormed the hospital, ordering males ages 15 to 65 to strip and bear interrogation within the yard. Mazen Khalidi, whose contaminated proper leg had been amputated, mentioned nurses pleaded with troopers to let him relaxation relatively than be a part of the blindfolded and handcuffed males outdoors. They refused, and he hobbled downstairs, his stump bleeding.
“The humiliation scared me greater than demise,” Khalidi mentioned.
The hospital’s director, Ahmed Muhanna, was seized by Israeli troops; his whereabouts stay unknown. Considered one of Gaza’s main medical doctors, orthopedist Adnan al-Bursh, was additionally detained throughout the raid and died in Israeli custody in Might.
Within the wreckage from the November shelling, workers discovered a message that Abu Nujaila had written on a whiteboard within the earlier weeks.
“Whoever stays till the top will inform the story,” it learn in English. “We did what we might. Keep in mind us.”
A number of blocks away, on Oct. 18, artillery hit the higher flooring of Indonesian Hospital, workers mentioned. Individuals fled for his or her lives. They’d already been surrounded by Israeli troops, leaving medical doctors and sufferers inside with out sufficient meals, water and provides.
“The bombing round us has elevated. They’ve paralyzed us,” mentioned Edi Wahyudi, an Indonesian volunteer.
Two sufferers died due to an influence outage and lack of provides, mentioned Muhannad Hadi, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Palestinian territories.
Tamer al-Kurd, a nurse on the hospital, mentioned round 44 sufferers and solely two medical doctors stay. He mentioned he was so dehydrated he was beginning to hallucinate. “Individuals come to me to save lots of them. … I can’t try this on my own, with two medical doctors,” he mentioned in a voice message, his voice weak. “I’m drained.”
On Saturday, the Israeli navy mentioned it had facilitated the evacuation of 29 sufferers from Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals.
The Indonesian is Northern Gaza’s largest hospital. As we speak its prime flooring are charred, its partitions pockmarked by shrapnel, its gates strewn with piled-up rubble — all of the legacy of Israel’s siege within the autumn of 2023.
Earlier than the assault, the Israeli military claimed an underground command-and-control heart lay beneath the hospital. It launched blurry satellite tv for pc photos of what it mentioned was a tunnel entrance within the yard and a rocket launchpad close by, outdoors the hospital compound.
The Indonesia-based group that funds the hospital denied any Hamas presence. “If there’s a tunnel, we might know. We all know this constructing as a result of we constructed it brick by brick, layer by layer. It’s ridiculous,” Arief Rachman, a hospital supervisor from the Indonesia-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, instructed the AP final month.
After besieging and raiding the hospital, the navy didn’t point out or present proof of the underground facility or tunnels it had earlier claimed. When requested if any tunnels had been discovered, the navy spokesman’s workplace didn’t reply.
It launched photos of two automobiles discovered within the compound — a pickup truck with navy vests and a bloodstained automotive belonging to an kidnapped Israeli, suggesting he had been dropped at the hospital on Oct. 7. Hamas has mentioned it introduced wounded hostages to hospitals for therapy.
Through the siege, Israeli shelling crept nearer and nearer till, on Nov. 20, it hit the Indonesian’s second ground, killing 12 folks and wounding dozens, based on workers. Israel mentioned troops responded to “enemy hearth” from the hospital however denied utilizing shells.
Gunfire over the subsequent days hit partitions and whizzed by way of intensive care. Explosions sparked fires outdoors the hospital courtyard the place some 1,000 displaced Palestinians sheltered, based on workers. The Israeli navy denied concentrating on the hospital, though it acknowledged close by bombardment might have broken it.
For 3 weeks, wounded poured in — as much as 500 a day to a facility with capability for 200. Provides hadn’t entered in weeks. Bloodstained linens piled up. Medical doctors, some working 24-hour shifts, ate a couple of dates a day. The invention of moldy flour on Nov. 23 was nearly thrilling.
With out medicines or ventilators, there was little medical doctors might do. Wounds grew to become contaminated. Medical doctors mentioned they carried out dozens of amputations on contaminated limbs. Medics estimated a fifth of incoming sufferers died. At the very least 60 corpses lay within the courtyard. Others had been buried beneath a close-by playground.
“To see sufferers dying earlier than your eyes since you don’t have the power to assist them, it’s important to ask your self: ‘The place is humanity?’” requested Dergham Abu Ibrahim, a volunteer.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, as soon as a linchpin of northern Gaza’s well being system, was burning on Thursday of final week.
Israeli shells crashed into the third ground, igniting a fireplace that destroyed medical provides, based on the World Well being Group, which had delivered the tools simply days earlier than. The artillery hit water tanks and broken the dialysis unit, badly burning 4 medics who tried to extinguish the blaze, mentioned the hospital’s director, Hossam Abu Safiya.
In movies pleading for assist over the previous weeks, Abu Safiya had fought to take care of his composure as Israeli forces surrounded the hospital. However final weekend, there have been tears in his eyes.
“Every thing now we have constructed, they’ve burned,” he mentioned, his voice cracking. “They burned our hearts. They killed my son.”
On Oct. 25, Israeli troops stormed the hospital after what an Israeli navy official described as an intense battle with militants close by. Through the battle, Israeli hearth focused the hospital’s oxygen tanks as a result of they “may be booby traps,” the official mentioned.
Israeli forces withdrew after three days, throughout which Palestinian well being officers mentioned almost all of Kamal Adwan’s medical employees had been detained, an Israeli drone killed at the very least one physician and two kids in intensive care died when mills stopped working.
Days later, a drone struck Abu Safiya’s son in close by Jabalia. The 21-year-old had been wounded by Israeli snipers throughout the first navy raid on Kamal Adwan final December. Now he’s buried within the yard of the hospital, the place simply Abu Safiya and one different physician stay to deal with the handfuls of wounded pouring in every day from new strikes in Jabalia.
The Israeli navy mentioned troops detained 100 folks, some who had been “posing as medical workers.” Troopers stripped the lads to examine for weapons, the navy mentioned, earlier than these deemed militants had been despatched to detention camps. The navy claimed that the hospital was “totally operational, with all departments persevering with to deal with sufferers.” It launched footage of a number of weapons and an RPG launcher with a number of rounds it mentioned it discovered contained in the hospital.
Kamal Adwan workers say greater than 30 medical personnel stay detained, together with the pinnacle of nursing, who’s employed by MedGlobal, an American group that sends medical groups to catastrophe areas, and Dr. Mohammed Obeid, the surgeon employed by Medical doctors with out Borders who beforehand labored at al-Awda Hospital and had moved to Kamal Adwan.
The turmoil echoed Israel’s nine-day siege of Kamal Adwan final December. On Dec. 12, troopers entered and allowed police canine to assault workers, sufferers and others, a number of witnesses mentioned. Ahmed Atbail, a 36-year-old who had sought refuge on the hospital, mentioned he noticed a canine chew off one man’s finger.
Witnesses mentioned the troops ordered boys and males, starting from their mid-teens to 60, to line up outdoors crouched within the chilly, blindfolded and almost bare for hours of interrogation. “Each time somebody lifted their heads, they had been overwhelmed,” mentioned Mohammed al-Masri, a lawyer who was detained.
The navy later revealed footage of males exiting the hospital. Al-Masri recognized himself within the footage. He mentioned troopers staged the pictures, ordering males to put down rifles belonging to the hospital guards as in the event that they had been militants surrendering. Israel mentioned all photographs launched are genuine and that it apprehended dozens of suspected militants.
As they launched a few of the males after interrogation, troopers fired on them as they tried to reenter the hospital, wounding 5, three detainees mentioned. Ahmed Abu Hajjaj recalled listening to bursts of gunfire as he made his means again in the dead of night. “I believed, this is senseless — who would they be taking pictures at?”
Witnesses additionally mentioned a bulldozer lumbered into the hospital compound, plowing into buildings. Abu Safiya, Abu Hajjaj and al-Masri described being held by troopers contained in the hospital as they heard folks screaming outdoors.
After the troopers withdrew, the lads noticed the bulldozer had crushed tents that beforehand sheltered some 2,500 folks. Many of the displaced had evacuated, however Abu Safiya mentioned he discovered our bodies of 4 folks crushed, with splints from latest therapy within the hospital nonetheless on their limbs.
Requested in regards to the incident, the Israeli navy spokesman’s workplace mentioned: “Lies had been unfold on social media” about troops’ actions on the hospital. It mentioned our bodies had been found that had been buried beforehand, unrelated to the navy’s actions.
Later, the navy mentioned Hamas used the hospital as a command heart however produced no proof. It mentioned troopers uncovered weapons, but it surely confirmed footage solely of a single pistol.
The hospital’s director, Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout, stays in Israeli custody. The navy launched footage of him underneath interrogation saying he was a Hamas agent and that militants had been based mostly within the hospital. His colleagues mentioned he spoke underneath duress.
Hagari, the navy spokesperson, mentioned hospitals “present a lifetime of their very own … to the (Hamas) struggle system.” He mentioned hospitals had been linked to tunnels permitting fighters motion. “And once you take it, they don’t have any technique to transfer. Not from the south to the north.”
Regardless of typically suggesting hospitals are linked to Hamas’ underground networks, the navy has proven just one tunnel shaft from all of the hospitals it raided — one resulting in Shifa’s grounds.
In a report final month, a U.N. investigation fee decided that “Israel has applied a concerted coverage to destroy the health-care system of Gaza.” It described Israeli actions at hospitals as “collective punishment towards the Palestinians in Gaza.”
Some sufferers now worry hospitals, refusing to go to them or leaving earlier than therapy is full. “They’re locations of demise,” Ahmed al-Qamar, a 35-year-old economist in Jabalia refugee camp, mentioned of his worry of taking his kids to the hospital. “You may really feel it.”
Zaher Sahloul, the president of MedGlobal who has additionally labored in Gaza throughout the struggle, mentioned the sense of security that ought to encompass hospitals has been destroyed.
“This struggle has change into a scar within the minds of each physician and nurse.”
