Babies dying, bodies rotting: Inside Gaza’s largest hospital which has stopped functioning

TW: The following content may contain graphic or violent imagery The situation in Gaza is grim. As Israel continues its relentless attack on the Hamas-controlled enclave a healthcare crisis is unfolding. Gaza’s largest medical facility, Al-Shifa Hospital, has stopped functioning. All essential units have collapsed, according to its director Mohammad Abu Salmiya. The area around the hospital in Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip , has been witnessing intense fighting between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas operatives over the past few days. Reports say that tanks and armoured vehicles are within metres of the gate of the medical complex. The Al-Shifa Hospital has been a refuge for thousands of those displaced because of Israeli bombardment since the war with Hamas began more than a month ago. Now they are all trapped inside. Several patients, including babies, are dying. Doctors are racing against time desperate to save them as the hospital has reportedly run out of fuel and medicines. We take a look at what’s unfolding at the hospital, how newborns are at grave risk and why Israel is targeting it.

How bad is the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital? The Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, is a complex with several medical facilities, 600 to 900 beds, and thousands of staff. It is said to be the mainstay of healthcare provision in the region with services that few other hospitals in Gaza could offer, according to a report in The Guardian. The medical complex is now in the crosshairs in Gaza with thousands trapped inside because of nearby fighting. It is tackling power cuts and a lack of fuel. According to Adnan Abu Alhaijaa, Palestine’s ambassador to India, Israeli tanks are almost at the gate of the hospital. He told The Indian Express that the hospital was without electricity and “there is no oxygen”. “They are performing operations in a normal room, and on the floor, not in the operation theatre… because there is no electricity and the forces from three sides are besieging the hospital,” he was quoted as saying by the publication. [caption id=“attachment_13386192” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A Palestinian girl wounded in Israeli strikes, waits at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza City. Around 7,000 have been trapped inside the medical facility as fighting continues in its vicinity. Reuters[/caption] At least 32 patients died in the past three days, including three newborn babies, as a result of the siege of the hospital and lack of power, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra, who was inside Al-Shifa Hospital, told the news agency Reuters. Alhaijaa told The Indian Express that 12 children have died, six who were in incubators and six others who were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The lives of many, especially babies, are at risk as there is little chance of the situation improving. Also read: International law protects hospitals during war. Then why is Israel attacking them? What is the hospital doing to save babies? At Al Shifa, incubators were shut off because of the lack of electricity, endangering the lives of babies requiring intensive care. Premature babies at the hospital are wrapped in foil and kept next to hot water as doctors struggle to keep them alive. “Aluminum foil is kept around the babies to protect them from the cold weather,” Mehdat Abbas, director general of the health ministry, told CBS News. “It’s becoming winter and the weather is becoming colder now. For that reason, without having proper temperature for them, they immediately die. I hope — I hope — that they will remain alive despite the disaster this hospital is passing through,” he added. Many babies are covered in green fabric roughly taped around them for warmth, reports Reuters. But with the lack of electricity, food, water and equipment saving the lives of newborns is challenging. [caption id=“attachment_13386232” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Palestinian girl Orheen Al-Dayah, who was injured in her forehead in an Israeli strike amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, had her wounds stitched without anaesthesia, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on 8 November. Reuters[/caption] “Yesterday I had 39 babies and today they have become 36,” Dr Mohamed Tabasha, head of the paediatric department at Al Shifa, told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday. “I cannot say how long they can last. I can lose another two babies today, or in an hour,” he added. The premature babies weigh less than 1.5 kg each and some are about 700 to 800 grammes. They need to be in incubators, where temperature and humidity can be controlled as per their needs. However, the shortage of electricity has forced doctors to move them to regular beds. Placed side by side, they were surrounded by packets of nappies, cardboard boxes of sterile gauze and plastic bags, all attempts to keep them warm. “I never expected in my life that I would put 39 babies side by side on a bed, each with a different disease, and in this acute shortage of medical staff, of milk,” said Tabasha. The infants are too cold, and the temperature is not stable because of power cuts, he said. In the absence of infection control measures, they are transmitting viruses to each other and they have no immunity, according to the Reuters report. The doctor said that there was no longer any way of sterilising their milk and bottle teats to the required standard. As a result, some had contracted gastritis and were suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting, which meant an acute risk of dehydration. Another doctor, also involved in paediatric care, described the situation as deadly. Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati told Reuters over the phone, ‘They are in a very bad situation where you slowly kill them unless someone interferes to adjust or to improve their situation “These are very critical kinds of cases, where you have to be very sensitive in dealing with them. You have to take care of each of them in a very special way. Currently, they are all in open space, they are all with each other,” he added. To keep the babies safe the hospital needed electricity to run incubators, a proper steriliser for the milk and bottle teats, medicines and support machines in case any of the babies went into respiratory failure, said Tabasha. He said the situation was harrowing for the doctors and the four nurses in charge of the babies. “We are exhausted emotionally and physically,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_13386242” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A wounded Palestinian baby receives treatment at the Al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City in October. The medical complex has become the focus of a days-long stalemate in Israel’s war against Hamas. AP[/caption] What about other patients? There are around 7,000 people currently sheltering at the hospital, which include 1,500 patients and medical staff, according to the Al-Shifa director Abu Salmiya. Officials have warned that bodies are piling up and dogs have started eating corpses, according to a report on BBC. Doctors at Al-Shifa have refused the mandatory evacuation order from IDF because they fear the patients will die if left behind. Al-Shifa Hospital is “nearly a cemetery”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the WHO, said, “Around the hospital there are dead bodies which cannot be taken care of or not even be buried or taken away to any sort of morgue… The hospital is not working at all any more as it should.” US president Joe Biden said he hoped to see “less intrusive action” at the hospital, which he said “must be protected”. However, the Israeli onslaught continues. [caption id=“attachment_13386252” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Wounded Palestinians arrive at Al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes in October. Israel claims Hamas uses the facility for military purposes and has built a vast underground command centre below the hospital. File photo/AP[/caption] Why is Israel not sparing the hospital? Israel has accused Hamas of operating a command-and-control centre in tunnels underneath the hospitals. At a recent press conference, an IDF spokesperson displayed a satellite photograph of the hospital site with military “command” elements marked on it, which it described as an illustration based on “the true material that we have in our hands”, reports The Guardian. An Israeli military spokesperson told CNN on Saturday denied firing at the medical centre and rejected suggestions the hospital is under siege. A US official in the know-how of American intelligence told the publication that Hamas had a command node under the hospital, used fuel intended for it, and Hamas fighters regularly cluster in and around the hospital. However, Hamas and officials of the Gaza health ministry have denied the claims, saying that such propaganda was used to justify attacks on health facilities. With inputs from agencies