The Hind and Heba al-Hourani sisters were neat at the Baptiste Arabic hospital on Sunday on Sunday, when Israel ordered everyone in the building to evacuate in the middle of the night, before targeting the hospital.
“Suddenly, [it felt like] Everyone escaped and was going to leave us behind, “said Hind, 9, whose left leg had been amputated in a previous air strike which also left their sister injured in a critical way.” We ended up rushing into the street. We were afraid. “”
Heba said that once they went out on the street, they didn’t know where to go.
“We were picking up the streets, we could barely walk or do anything with our injured legs,” said Heba. “It was a very difficult, very frightening situation.”
The Arab Baptist Hospital of Al-Ahli, the last major hospital providing intensive care in northern Gaza, was forced to close after the Israeli strikes seriously damaged its emergency service. The strike is one of the last successes of the devastated health care infrastructure of Gaza, and intervenes while international humanitarian organizations say that hospital supplies are exhausted, without new aid entering the territory for more than seven weeks.
The aunt of Hind and Heba, Afaf Al-Hourani, said that as soon as they were invited to evacuate, they caught mattresses and tried to get the injured patients out of the building.
“The girls shouted in the streets … rear shouted, because she was suffering, so we put her on her sister’s mattress and shot them in the street,” said Al-Hourani.
“We called on others to help us shoot them through the rubble in the streets.”
Hind, an amputee, and his sister Heba al-Hourani were one of the hundreds of patients injured forced to evacuate the Baptist Arabic hospital in Al-Ahli on Sunday after the night after Israel warned that she would hit the building. Israel allegedly allegedly held a Hamas command and control center, without providing evidence. Hamas denies allegation.
The closure of the hospital means less urgent care available
Al-Hourani said that other people helped them reach the Crescent Red hospital, about 600 meters from the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, about a kilometer, where they were able to obtain treatment.
Israel said it had targeted a Hamas command and control center within the Al-Ahli hospital, without providing evidence, an allegation he used in strikes in the Gaza hospitals. Hamas has denied allegations.
The episcopal diocese of Jerusalem, who heads the hospital, said that the warning to evacuate came 20 minutes before the air strike. On Sunday, he called on the international community to intervene to “stop all kinds of attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions”.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that a patient, a girl, died during the evacuation because the staff was unable to provide urgent care.
Fadl Naeem, director of the Al-Ahli Hospital, said that his emergency service treated around 300 people every day. Naeem said the hospital’s laboratory and X -ray services were also closed as a result of the attack.
He told CBC News on Monday that he planned to rewrite, which could take weeks or months, but no new humanitarian supply has entered the Palestinian enclave since Israel blocked the entrance to emergency trucks on March 2, while talks blocked at the next stage of a truck now struck between Israel and Hamas.
Medical supplies that flow seriously low
AFAF Al-Hourani said the conditions for its nieces have worsened due to the lack of medication in Gaza. Hind and Heba were seriously injured by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City who killed their brother earlier this month.
“If the crossings were open and [Israel] would allow medicine to be let go for the wounded, so they would not suffer, “said Al-Hourani.
An Israeli air strike destroyed part of the Arab hospital in Al-Ahli, the last fully functional hospital in Gaza City. Witnesses said the strike had destroyed the hospital’s intensive care service.
Friday, the president of the Red Cross Mirjana Spooljaric told Reuters that medical supplies in the enclave are very low.
“We are now in a situation that I have to describe as hell on earth … People do not have access to water, electricity, food, in many parts,” said SPOLJARIC, warning that his field hospital should lack supplies within two weeks.
Dr. Hassan Al-Shaer, medical director of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, said the installation had received around 50 patients who evacuated Al-Ahli on Sunday.
“We have a limited number of beds here and a limited number of services,” Al-Shaer told CBC News on Tuesday. “It was very difficult to receive them.”
The hospital, which at one point was the largest medical complex and the Gaza Central Hospital, has less than 100 beds available for patients, against some 700 beds before the 18 -month war.
The UN chief “ deeply alarmed ” at the hospital strike
A spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” during the Sunday strike by Israeli forces at Al-Ahli Hospital.
“Under international humanitarian law, injured and patients, medical staff and medical establishments, including hospitals, must be respected and protected,” said the spokesman for the UN chief.
He said that the attack brought “a serious blow to a health care system already devastated in the [Gaza] Band.”
The Israeli army has struck and descend into hospitals several times during the 18 -month war, accusing Hamas activists of hiding or using them for military purposes. Hospital staff denied allegations and accused Israel of having endangered civilians recklessly and destroying their health care infrastructure.
On Tuesday, an Israeli air strike hit the northern door of the Kuwaiti hospital in the Muwasi region, killing a doctor and injuring nine other people.
The injured were all patients and doctors, and two of the patients were in critical condition after the strike, said Saber Mohammed, the hospital spokesperson.
There was no immediate comments from the Israeli army.
More than 51,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials. This includes more than 1,600 people killed since Israel put an end to a ceasefire and resumed its offensive last month to put pressure on Hamas to accept the changes in the agreement.
The Gaza Ministry of Health does not say how much civilians or combatants were, but says that women and children represent more than half of the dead.
Israel began its assault after thousands of armed men led by Hamas attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and removing 251 hostages, according to Israeli counts. Fifty-nine hostages are still inside Gaza, 24 of which are supposed to be alive.
