The situation in the Shifa Clinic, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, is deteriorating. There has apparently been no electricity for days, and reports of rotting corpses and dead premature babies are making the rounds. Hamas and Israel’s army blame each other – and use the situation for their own interests. What we know – and what we don’t.
The Shifa Clinic, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, becomes a symbol of the suffering of the civilian population in the war between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas – and an instrument on both sides in the fight for sovereignty of interpretation. Thousands of people are said to be holding out in the building complex in the northern part of the besieged strip of land, including hundreds of displaced people. Apparently no one is safe here anymore.
The UN reported with reference to the Palestinian Ministry of Health Dialysis patients in mortal danger corpses rotting in the streets and dead premature babies. The reports cannot be independently verified; both warring parties blame each other for the precarious situation.
What we know about the situation – and what we don’t.
Where is Shifa Hospital located and how big is it?
The Shifa Clinic is the largest hospital in the region with around 700 available beds and is located near the port in the center of Gaza City. Originally a British barracks, the building was converted into a medical facility in 1946, expanded ten years later during the Suez Crisis under Egyptian control and finally renovated in the 1980s according to plans by Israeli architects.
As the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, citing the The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that more than 2,000 people are currently staying in the hospital, including around 1,500 displaced people seeking refuge from air strikes. According to the Jerusalem Post, it is unclear how many people work on the site, which covers several hectares. Reports varied between 1,400 and 4,000 employees, of which 200 to 500 are still said to be on site.
The north of the extremely densely populated coastal area is the main scene of fighting between Hamas and Israel. According to Israeli sources, Hamas has now lost control of this part of the Gaza Strip. The fighting has intensified further since Friday, and fighting is now also said to be taking place in the immediate vicinity of the Schifa Clinic. “The constant shootings and bombings in the area have worsened the already critical situation,” wrote WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday on X, formerly Twitter. In the meantime, the WHO lost contact with hospital employees, but was later able to resume contact.
Why would Israel’s army target the hospital?
The Israeli army leadership suspects that Hamas’ military headquarters is located in tunnels beneath the clinic complex and accuses the terrorist group of using the patients as human shields (). Mohammad Abu Salamia, the hospital’s director, described the allegations as “lies and defamation.” This account is supported, among others, by the two Norwegian doctors Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse, who worked in the hospital during the fighting. So both insisted that there were no Hamas terrorists in the hospital. At least Gilbert’s statement should be viewed with caution: the Norwegian, who describes himself as a “political doctor”, has attracted attention in the past with anti-Israel statements.
Israel has claimed for years that the hospital is the most important Hamas military command post in the Gaza Strip. After the withdrawal of Israeli troops in 2005, the terrorists began expanding the building’s original basement area, adding lower floors and connecting them to the large-scale tunnel system, it said. As supposed evidence, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a 3D animation on October 27th that purports to show Hamas’ branching and multi-story underground headquarters:
The following day it was also addressed , in which an alleged Hamas terrorist confirmed claims of military use. Since it is completely unclear under what circumstances the Hamas fighter was interrogated and how voluntary his statements were, the interrogation has only limited significance. Likewise, the authenticity of the 3D animation cannot be independently verified.
The Hamas leadership, for its part, accuses Israel of deliberately targeting civilian facilities. Israel’s army spokesman Daniel Hagari again firmly rejected this. “There is no siege, I repeat: no siege of Shifa Hospital.”
War in the Middle East
A hospital on the verge of collapse: That’s how bad things are at the embattled Schifa Clinic
“The east side of the hospital is open for the safe passage of people from Gaza who want to leave,” Hagari claimed. However, critics point out that many patients cannot be transported due to their critical condition. Although the Israeli military leadership has repeatedly asked the Palestinians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, Hamas prevented the people from doing so.
Israel’s secret services also suspect hostile command centers under other hospitals. According to the WHO, 36 medical facilities have been damaged since the start of the war, including 22 hospitals.
What is the current situation in the hospital?
Since the beginning of the Israeli offensive, the supply situation in the north of the Gaza Strip, especially in Gaza City, has deteriorated daily. “All hospitals” in the north of the Palestinian territory are now “out of operation,” the AFP news agency quotes Yussef Abu Rish, the Hamas government’s deputy health minister, as saying.
The aid organization Doctors Without Borders described the situation in Shifa Hospital as “catastrophic”. He’s in the clinic The last generator that was still supplying electricity failed on Saturday due to a lack of fuel, one said , which in turn is based on information from the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health. Only a few vital devices are still supposed to run on solar energy.
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, IDF soldiers delivered several containers of fuel directly to the hospital on Saturday evening, risking their lives. A statement released by the Defense Forces on X on Sunday morning . In the 24-second recording, most of which was filmed with night vision equipment, soldiers can be seen carrying several containers out of an armored vehicle to a building and placing them there. Due to the darkness, it was initially impossible to prove with certainty that it was the Shifa Hospital. The storage location has now been located. Accordingly, the soldiers placed the canisters at an intersection about 300 meters from the hospital.*
The reaction of clinic director Abu Salamia speaks for the authenticity of the recording. Abu Salamia did not reject corresponding reports about the delivery. However, Hamas did not ban the use of the fuel, as Israel claimed. Instead, Salamia criticized that the quantity delivered would not be enough for “fifteen minutes” to operate the hospital generators. For normal operations, the hospital needs 10,000 liters of fuel every day, a Shifa surgeon told the BBC. The containers supplied by the Israeli soldiers are said to contain 300 liters. The team also feared being shot at if they left the clinic to get to the containers, Director Salamia said. If Israel really wanted to deliver fuel, those responsible for the transport should have worked with the Red Cross or another international organization, the clinic boss explained.
The Israeli narrative that Hamas was responsible for the precarious situation in the hospital was also fueled A video of an alleged nurse at the facility was widely shared on Saturday. “Hamas is taking over the Al-Shifa hospital, Hamas is stealing fuel and medicine,” the woman reports in the recording. High-reach accounts, including Israeli celebrities, spread the posting. Shortly afterwards, however, Palestinians also began circulating the video and mocking how fake it was. In fact, it is most likely right-wing Israeli propaganda, . Accordingly, the alleged nurse was not recognized by any medical staff at the hospital, among other things.
How does the US react as Israel’s most important ally?
The US has warned the Israeli leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack medical facilities. “The United States does not want to see gun battles in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire,” Jake Sullivan, the Biden administration’s national security adviser, said in a statement on Sunday However, Sullivan shared the view that Hamas was using patients as human shields.
What is true about the reports of dead premature babies?
According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health on Monday afternoon, seven newborns died in Shifa Hospital after oxygen machines were switched off. The information cannot be independently verified either.
Previously it had Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al Kaifa said 39 infants died because they “didn’t get oxygen or medicine and the electricity went out.” This has now been corrected by the authorities. Rather, the babies are at risk of death. However, the original disinformation continued to spread rapidly on the Internet.
According to a UN report, two premature babies and ten other patients have died since the alleged power outage. Since the UN emergency agency OCHA relies on information from the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry in Ramallah in the West Bank, independent confirmation of the figures is not possible. This also applies to the statement that a further 36 premature babies and several dialysis patients were in acute danger to their lives due to the precarious situation.
Poor hygiene is also reportedly becoming a problem. In the streets in front of the clinic, there are dozens of decomposing corpses wrapped only in white cloth, as can be seen in photos. A Shifa surgeon told the BBC that there were 100 unburied bodies in the hospital yard. Because of the fierce fighting, every attempt to bury the dead has so far failed, the doctor continued. The cooling facilities in the hospital would not be an option due to the lack of fuel.
Sources: “”, “”, “”, , DPA, AFP
*Editor’s note: An initial version of the text stated that in the video showing the fuel delivery, red and white curbs could be seen, which are also present in several places on the Shifa Hospital premises. The location of the canisters has now been determined exactly. We have updated the passage with this information.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
