On Saturday, Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 39 children, including babies in incubators in the ICU of Al-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza are at risk of dying at any moment as there is no oxygen to keep them alive. Simultaneously, hospital premises has been targeted with heavy air and artillery bombardment by Israeli forces.
Al Jazeera spoke to Gaza Deputy Health Minister Dr. Youssef Abu Alreesh who was inside al-Shifa Hospital while Israeli forces surrounded the facility.
“No one is able to move around the compound, snipers are stationed all over the place in addition to the drones that target and kill any moving person.
Part of the hospital was shelled and part of the building caught fire, we fear it will engulf the whole compound,” he said.
He also said that when some families tried to leave, they were targeted by Israeli forces, resulting in their bodies lying outside the hospital that staff have not been able to retrieve.
Israeli army used white phosphorus on al-Shifa: Palestine health minister
Palestinian health minister, Mai al-Kaila, claims that Israel used white phosphorus shelling on Al -Shifa.
“This is an internationally banned weapon. We are wondering who is responsible for holding Israel to account for shelling al-Shifa Hospital with white phosphorus,” she told a news conference in Ramallah, adding that Israeli forces were committing a “genocide” in Gaza.
“Inevitable death has become the fate of patients in Gaza hospitals – and we hold Israel, the United Nations and the international community responsible for that.”
Internally displaced Gazans
In conversation with Al Jazeera, the communications director of the UN’s Palestine relief agency UNRWA, Juliette Touma, said between 50,000 and 80,000 have left their homes since November 4, fleeing from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip.
