GAZA: The health ministry in Gaza on Friday said that five patients died due to shortage of oxygen at one of the war-hit Palestinian territory’s few operating hospitals.
The ministry in a statement said that a fifth patient at Nasser hospital died as a result of the stopping of generators that caused cut in oxygen supply to the medical facility.
Earlier on Friday it said four patients in the intensive care unit of the hospital had died due to lack of oxygen.
“We hold the Israeli occupation responsible for the lives of patients and staff considering that the complex is now under its full control,” it said in a statement on Friday.
A witness, on the condition of anonymity told western media that army snipers shot at anyone who moved inside the hospital and that Israeli military vehicles surrounding it also opened fire.
The ministry on Thursday said that hundreds of people, including patients and medical staff, had still been trapped the hospital complex.
Earlier, the Israeli army said it had launched an operation in the hospital after receiving information. But later it said it had not yet found any evidence of this, although forces had discovered weapons, grenades and mortar bombs at the hospital complex.
For weeks, thousands of people displaced by the Israel-Hamas conflict have taken refuge at the complex. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders has said that bombardment at the hospital had forced its staff to flee, leaving patients behind.
The Health Ministry in Gaza has said that Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip has killed around 28,775 people and injured 68,552 people mostly women and children. The ministry said that 112 Palestinians have been killed and 157 injured over the past 24 hours.
