Among the increasing tensions, a UN report throws light on the crucial situation of Gaza’s hospitals, especially Al-Shifa, attacked during conflicts with Israel. Contradictory claims cast doubt on the hospital’s actual purpose and function.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) declared that just one hospital remains active at a basic level in Gaza City and northern Gaza. The department emphasized that all other health centers have stopped operations because of an intense shortfall in management, medical equipment, oxygen, food, and water, exacerbated by ongoing shelling and closeness to areas of tension.
Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City is now the prominent institution that shelters over 500 patients and is the only facility able to admit more patients in the north. Yet, it also encounters rising shortfalls and ever-increasing challenges.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that the majority of Gaza’s hospitals almost 22 out of 36 are disabled as a result of many factors like fuel shortages, damages, attacks, and instability. WHO warned against the excretion of northern hospitals, as ordered by the Israeli military, stressing that it would be dangerous for some people as active hospitals in the southern region cannot accept more patients.
Hamas has criticized both Israel and the United States for the Israeli army’s invasion of Gaza’s leading hospital, Al-Shifa, mentioning it as a failure of the United Nations to secure Palestinians.
According to Hamas, the attack on Al-Shifa hospital is perceived as silence from the United Nations and a setback from various nations and governments, yet it claims that this won’t stop Palestinians from holding onto their state and their legal rights.
Blaming the US for permitting Israel to perform civilian wipeout, Hamas claims that the US backed Israel’s “false narrative” that Al-Shifa hospital was used as a control center, thus allowing further brutality.
The White House and the Pentagon just argued that Hamas is holding weapons and running a control center from Al-Shifa hospital, established on recently publicized intelligence. These statements that are associated with Israel’s claims have been continuously denied by Palestinian hospital officials and Hamas.
Israel has frequently claimed that Hamas utilizes the hospital as a control center and weapons storage, Hamas denied this claim, and individual witnesses have challenged it. Israel, yet, hasn’t provided evidence to back its allegations. It declares that such adoption threatens the hospital’s secure status under international law. An action disputed by many international human rights lawyers.
The Palestinian Administration, historically portraying Palestinians as an inadequate authority in Gaza, warned against a possible slaughter within the hospital.
Abul Reesh, from Gaza’s health ministry, requested the international community and the United Nations ‘ direct interference to protect the approximately 20,000 people inside the hospital, involving medical staff, 650 unwell people, and thousands of injured.
The White House declared on Tuesday that US intelligence sources backed Israel’s claim that Hamas had set a control center under the hospital. According to National Security Council representative John Kirby, Hamas and another Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, use Al-Shifa in Gaza City as a control center, storing weapons and training to react to Israeli military actions targeting the facility.
