Appeal from Doctors Without Borders in Gaza: “Please, do something”
Published: Saturday, Nov 11th 2023, 17:30
العودة إلى البث المباشر
The aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has renewed its appeal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. In view of further attacks on the Shifa hospital and other health facilities, this is the only way to save patients and staff, the organization announced in Geneva on Saturday. "We are being killed here, please do something," wrote an MSF nurse from the basement of the Shifa hospital on Saturday. MSF teams and hundreds of patients are still in the hospital.
Israel's army denied allegations of attacks. "There is no shooting at the hospital, nor is it under siege," said a spokesperson in Tel Aviv. The eastern side is still open. The Israeli troops were supporting anyone who wanted to leave the hospital safely. According to information from Israeli intelligence services, Hamas, which rules the coastal area, is using the Shifa hospital as a command and control center. This information cannot currently be independently verified either.
With 700 beds, the hospital is the most important hospital complex in the Gaza Strip and provides emergency and surgical care. There is currently no other facility in the sealed-off coastal strip that can receive and treat so many patients with complex, sometimes life-threatening injuries, reported Doctors Without Borders. Demands from the Israeli side to evacuate the hospital ignored the reality. "Many patients have already undergone surgery and cannot leave. They cannot be evacuated," a doctor at Shifa Hospital was quoted as saying.
According to a doctor, the hospital had to largely cease operations. "There is no more electricity," the doctor, Ghassan Abu Sitta, told the German Press Agency. "Most of the staff have left the hospital." The injured who were able to leave had done so. According to him, seriously injured people are still being cared for by a core medical team.
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