Hospital without oxygen – dramatic situation in Gaza
Published: Monday, Nov 13th 2023, 17:20
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As the Israeli army continues its attacks in the fight against the Islamist Hamas in Gaza, the situation in the hospitals there is becoming increasingly dramatic. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, seven newborn babies died in the Shifa Hospital in the north of the sealed-off coastal strip after oxygen equipment was switched off. The lack of fuel led to the death of a total of 34 patients, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Monday. The information could not be independently verified.
This morning, the UN emergency aid office OCHA had reported twelve deaths since Saturday - including two premature babies. The UN office referred to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. According to the report, 36 other premature babies, who are dependent on incubators and therefore on electricity, and several dialysis patients were in acute danger of dying due to the power cut.
OCHA: Devastating conditions
According to the UN, the last generator broke down on Saturday due to a lack of fuel. Around 100 bodies were decomposing on the hospital grounds and could not be buried, OCHA further reported, citing the Ministry of Health in Ramallah. According to the information, the hygienic conditions are devastating. Medical waste was accumulating in the wards and could not be disposed of properly, it said. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 2,000 people in the Shifa clinic, presumably including more than 600 patients and around 1,500 displaced persons.
On October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other groups killed around 1,200 people in massacres and attacks in the Israeli border area and abducted around 240 hostages in the Gaza Strip. Israel then imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip. The army also launched massive air strikes and deployed ground troops in the densely populated coastal strip.
According to the military, a total of 4300 attacks have been carried out since the start of the ground operations. Among other things, hundreds of launch sites for anti-tank missiles and around 300 tunnel shafts have been hit. Around 3000 of the targets were "terrorist infrastructure".
According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has now risen to more than 11,000. The figures cannot currently be independently verified, but the United Nations and other observers point out that the authority's figures have proved credible in the past.
UN: Staff building in Gaza Strip attacked
According to UN figures, 101 employees of the Palestinian relief organization UNRWA were also killed. This is the highest number of UN aid workers to have been killed in such a short time in the history of the United Nations, said Tatyana Valovaya, Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva.
The United Nations also accused Israel of attacking a building housing UN staff. The attack took place near the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. This is a further indication that no place in Gaza is safe, said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. The coordinates of the building's location had been communicated twice to all parties to the conflict, including on Friday. An Israeli army spokesman said on Monday that the army had attacked a target next to a UN building the previous day "on the basis of operational necessity".
France's foreign minister calls for long-term pause in fighting
Meanwhile, Israel's army once again named a time window of several hours in which civilians were to be allowed to flee from the north to the south on Monday. There was also a so-called humanitarian pause in fighting in the south for four hours. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna criticized the situation in the Gaza Strip as untenable and called for a long-term pause in fighting. "There are too many civilian casualties. It can't go on like this," said Colonna at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
In view of the dramatic situation in the Gaza Strip, other politicians also expressed their deep concern. The European Union condemned the use of hospitals and civilians as shields by the Islamist Hamas. "Civilians must be allowed to leave the combat zone", said EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell in a statement on behalf of the EU. The fighting has had a serious impact on hospitals and has taken "a terrible toll on civilians and medical staff".
The EU also called on Israel to exercise "the greatest possible restraint" in order to ensure the protection of the civilian population. At the same time, the EU emphasized Israel's right to defend itself in accordance with international law.
Asselborn: "History will not forgive us for this"
For outgoing Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jan Asselborn, this does not go far enough - he called for the EU to speak clearly to Israel. "There are babies here who are suffocating because there is no more oxygen. These are people who are in intensive care and have no chance," he said. The endless suffering that has happened in Israel must not be repeated in Gaza. "History will not forgive us for this," he warned.
Baerbock expresses gloomy views on the situation in the Middle East
Following recent crisis talks in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was very pessimistic about the Gaza war and the prospects for the future. "The situation in the region is tearing apart. The rifts seem to be getting deeper," said the Green politician on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Ministers' meeting. "The bitter reality is that we are only making the smallest of steps forward." EU chief diplomat Borrell announced that he would once again try to ease the situation and would travel to Israel and other states in the region this week.
©Keystone/SDA
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