Deial Al Bala, Gaza Strip (AP) — As Israeli forces endure, Gaza city health care system is firing and forced to collapse.
Almost two weeks after Israel Latest ground attacks In Gaza’s biggest city, two clinics were destroyed by airstrikes, and two hospitals were closed after being damaged, with the other hospitals barely functioning.
Many patients and staff are forced to escape from hospitals, and only a few doctors and nurses leave because of the incubator and other child tendencies of patients I’m too sick to move. Health workers say hospital walls and Israeli drones ring outside, often firing nearby, making it dangerous to go.
Al-QUDS Hospital, located on the southern tip of Gaza City, hastily evacuated most patients last week. Israeli forces have been closed.
Medic dropped a patient in a tile rub field. Covered with gauze for severe burns in 40% of his body, they told him to find a way to the clinic for treatment, said Andy Vaughn, an American nurse who was inside the Medic.
“It’s crazy,” Vaughn said in an interview that she was also evacuated. “That’s the state of the health care system,” she says Israel is deliberately dismantling it.
AL-QUDS once had capacity in 120 patients. There are currently around 20 people remaining, including two babies in intensive care. Approximately 60 doctors, nurses and patients’ families are evacuated there.
Vaughn is a native of Seattle and has volunteered for the Australian and New Zealand Medical Association in Palestine since July. She kept a video diary of her time at Al-Quds and sometimes posted on social media.
She shared dozens of videos with the Associated Press and checked them out. Given Israel’s ban on foreign media, Gaza volunteers like her have become an important source of information.
Like other hospitals, water, electricity and oxygen are lacking in Al-Quds. The hospital’s oxygen station was hit by Israeli gunmen.
Israel says the campaign in Gaza city aims to destroy Hamas infrastructure and free hostages during an attack on Israel that launched the war on October 7, 2023. The army ordered them to go south and south, saying that the whole population was for their safety.
On Thursday, Nevar Farsaf, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent Moon that manages the AL-QUD, said Israeli vehicles were surrounding it, “completely restricting” the movement of remaining staff and patients, and the drones were fired at the hospital and nearby buildings.
Israel accused Hamas of using medical facilities as command centres, using them for military purposes and harming civilians, but it has provided little evidence. Hamas security guards are seen in hospitals, leaving some areas inaccessible.
Israel did not immediately respond to questions about the situation in Al-Quds.
Vaughn evacuated with another doctor on Tuesday and headed south.
“I’ve got a message from a colleague asking why I left,” Vaughn said from the guesthouse in Deia Al Bala after she was evacuated. “They say they’re going to die.”
The hospital is on fire
Despite orders to remove Israel, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remained in Gaza city, with nearly a million residents ahead of the ongoing attacks. International experts say the city is in Hungry.
Israel has closed across the northern border of Gaza since September 12th, preventing direct aid from being shipped to the city. As Israel continues to restrict their movements, aid groups are rushing to deliver supplies from the south, crossing dangerous roads, according to the United Nations.
According to the Jordanian government, the Israeli strike destroyed at least two clinics on the other side of Gaza city, and forced two other clinics, including a children’s hospital and a specialized eye centre.
According to the United Nations, 27 other health care agencies and primary health care centres in Gaza City say many of them are important in treating malnutrition and were forced to be suspended or closed in September.
As Israeli tanks approached, nearly 100 patients fled Sifa, the main hospital in Gaza city on Wednesday and Thursday. Many staff members stopped coming to work, fearing they would be involved in the attack.
“Fear is real,” said Hassan Alshal, Sifa medical director.
Rights groups estimated that more than 160 health workers from Gaza were in Israel as of February. Israel said detention was carried out in accordance with the law and some people were involved in “terrorist activities” or were members of Hamas.
On Wednesday, Israeli military claimed on social media that gunmen were operating within Sifa. It attached a grainy video that said the gunman had opened the fire. The AP was unable to confirm the claim, and Shifa’s doctors denied it and called it an excuse to attack the hospital.
The hospitals are empty as Israeli forces advance
Israeli forces attacked the AL-QUD for a week in November 2023, temporarily shutting it down. Some of it was destroyed and at least one civilian was killed, Red Crescent said.
The United Nations and several human rights groups say Israel has systematically targeted hospitals using direct strikes, siege tactics and raids.
When hospitals stop working, nearby residents will usually relocate, said Azura Ziada, a UK-based health systems analyst who works closely with the Gaza medical team.
Before the latest attack in Gaza city, Al-QUDS staff began to discharge uncritical patients, fearing their safety, Vaughn said. They also diverted traffic from the hospital as Israeli drones were fired into surrounding buildings, she said.
Nurses’ Video Diary
Vaughan filmed video of the cell phones of fighters and projectiles descending around the city and hospital.
For one, her room shaking, huge feathers of smoke blocking the view from her window. In another, from one of the lower floors of the hospital, the child carrying the water stops as loudly as himself as the explosion shakes the wall.
Last week, hundreds of Palestinian families fled to and evacuated to and around the hospital.
On Saturday night, Vaughn said a caravan ran near the hospital opened fire. The teenager suffered a superficial head wound, she said.
He may have been the last patient admitted to Al-Quds.
A day later, Vaughn overshadowed the nurses in the newborn unit. She tried to calm her down by holding one of the remaining two babies (only 13 days ago), Vaughn said the baby’s heart rate dropped dangerously as the explosion exploded nearby.
From her fifth floor bedroom window, Vaughn recorded a nearby strike.
“They hit the hospital again,” Vaughn said in the video. She recorded an Apache helicopter strike in the distance.
On the fourth floor there were some glass shards from crushed windows to several beds. Fresh blood stained the mattress with discarded. Vaughn took a picture of the empty hospital floor.
“The floor was full of patients in the hall, but now it’s shattered because everyone had to get away,” she filmed on Monday’s video.
For her own safety, Vaughn moved the day underground.
The next day, shortly after Vaughn left, her colleagues informed her that an Israeli military vehicle had approached the hospital’s south gate.
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Magiddy reported from Cairo. El Deeb reported from Beirut. Sam Metz contributed from Rabat, Morocco.
