GAZA: Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza is ‘nearly a cemetery’, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Thousands could be trapped inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, which is also battling power cuts and a lack of fuel due to nearby fighting. Meanwhile, the officials have warned of rotting bodies piling up there.
A spokesman for the WHO, Christian Lindmeier said about 600 people remained in the hospital, with others sheltering in hallways, the BBC reported. “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,” he said adding “The hospital is not working at all any more as it should. It’s nearly a cemetery.”
Doctors have also spoken of bodies piling up and rotting at the now dysfunctional medical facility.
Al-Shifa’s manager, Dr Mohamed Abu Selmia said there were about 150 bodies decomposing, “leaving unpleasant odours”. He said the hospital was under a “blockade”, and that dogs had started eating corpses.
The area around the hospital has seen fierce fighting between Israeli and Hamas forces in recent days, much of which has been taking place in streets close to the hospital. There have also been media reports of tanks being within yards of the hospital gate.
The Hamas-run health ministry has said there are at least 2,300 people still inside Al-Shifa hospital – up to 650 patients, 200 to 500 staff and around 1,500 people seeking shelter.
Hamas said Monday they told Qatari mediators that they were ready to release up to 70 women and children held captive in Gaza in return for a five-day ceasefire.
“The truce should include a complete cease-fire and allowing aid and humanitarian relief everywhere in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas Alqassam Brigades spokesman, Abu Ubaida said in a recorded audio published on the group’s Telegram channel.
