Growing alarm over fate of patients in major Gaza hospital after Israeli raid

AFP | Jerusalem                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

There was growing concern yesterday over a key Gaza hospital a day after a raid by the Israeli army, with the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry saying several patients had died there due to a lack of oxygen.

The ministry said power was cut off and the generators stopped after the raid at the Nasser Hospital in the main southern city of Khan Yunis, leading to the deaths of five patients.

In recent days, intense fighting has raged in the vicinity of the hospital - one of the Palestinian territory’s last remaining major medical facilities that are still operational.

The Israeli army said its forces at the hospital had taken into custody more than 20 people suspected of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attack that sparked the war.

Troops entered the hospital on Thursday, acting on what the military said was “credible intelligence” that hostages seized in the attack had been held at the facility and that bodies of some may still be inside. It later acknowledged it had found no evidence.

A witness, who declined to be named for safety reasons, told AFP the Israeli forces had shot “at anyone who moved inside the hospital”.

Gaza’s health ministry also raised fears for four other patients in the intensive care unit and three children, saying it held Israel “responsible for the lives of patients and staff considering that the complex is now under its full control”.

Doctors Without Borders said its medics had been forced to flee and leave patients behind, with one employee unaccounted for and another detained by Israeli forces.

Roughly 130 hostages are still believed to be in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Dozens of the estimated 250 hostages seized during the attack were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a week-long truce in November. Israel says 30 of those still in Gaza are presumed dead.

At least 28,775 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to the health ministry