Jerusalem, Nov 11 (EFE).- Israeli attacks against the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, have “dramatically intensified” in recent hours, global medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Saturday.
Smoke billows from ruined buildings in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, Israel, 11 November 2023. EFE-EPA/NEIL HALL
“Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff at the hospital have reported a catastrophic situation inside just few hours ago,” the organization said on social media platform X.
A tank and a digger patrol in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, Israel, 11 November 2023. EFE-EPA/NEIL HALL
“We urgently reiterate our calls to stop the attacks against hospitals and for the protection of medical facilities, medical staff, and patients,” it added.
A military drone circles the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, Israel, 11 November 2023. EFE-EPA/NEIL HALL
“There is a patient who needs surgery. There is a patient who’s already asleep in our department. We cannot evacuate ourselves and [leave] these people inside. As a doctor. I swear to help the people who need help,” MSF Surgeon in Al-Shifa Dr. Mohammed Obeid said.
On Friday, Israeli troops began to encircle Al-Shifa and some other major hospitals in Gaza.
The health ministry of the Gaza Strip, governed by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, reported the death of at least 20 people in an Israeli attack on Al-Shifa on Friday.
More than 11,000 people have died and almost 27,500 have been injured in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of war following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel in which 1,200 people died and 240 were kidnapped.
On Friday night, the Israeli foreign ministry reduced the number of people killed in the attack from 1,400 to 1,200.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat made several posts on X in which he mentioned the revised figure without offering any more details.
In a condemnation of a UNESCO resolution regarding the situation in Gaza, Haiat wrote that the “one-sided” resolution “totally ignores the October 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists, who brutally murdered about 1200 people in cold blood, and kidnapped 240 including babies, children, women, and the elderly.”
“Around 1,200 is the official number of victims of the October 7 massacre,” Haiat said in another statement published by local media. EFE
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