In the southern city of Khan Younis, Gaza, medical care is no more. Last Wednesday I wrote of the Israeli military's impending attack on the city's Nassar Hospital and of the panic sweeping over the thousands of Palestinians sheltering there. The military executed the attack the next day. Now it's a structure, not a hospital.
Israeli forces arrested 70 of its medical staff, leaving only 15 healthcare workers to look after those who could not be evacuated. The "hospital" has no tap water and it's low on food. It's also short on medical supplies and there's no electricity save for a backup generator that can run some of the lifesaving equipment. Eight patients have died for want of oxygen. The W.H.O. said three days after the attack that Nasser was "no longer functional."
The same story prevails. Israel claims it raided the hospital because of Hamas' presence. Gazan health officials deny it. Humanitarian aid agencies are demanding that Israel respect international law on the protection of hospitals. And claims by both sides are unverifiable.
There is another hospital in Khan Younis, the Al-Amal. It's been under siege for 28 days by the Israeli military. The Red Crescent says the situation is "highly dangerous," least of all because, like Nassar, food and fuel are running short. Worse, the military shelled the hospital over the weekend.
The Red Crescent said the Israeli military "had bombed the area around Al-Amal multiple times, damaging the hospital building and terrifying those inside." Troops shot at its water desalination station, "disabling it," which left only a three-day supply of water for the 180 people inside: patients, medical staff and the displaced.
One other is a Red Crescent relief worker, who said "our biggest dream is to just be able to stand by the windows. To see the sun, the streets. But, unfortunately, we can’t do that. Because standing by the window means death. The occupation’s snipers are shooting at anything that moves inside the hospital."
Outside, on eight occasions aid groups had requested deliveries of food, medical supplies and generator fuel and on eight occasions the military denied the requests.
The Times asked the Israeli military for a comment on Al-Amal's situation. The military referred the paper "to Israel’s agency overseeing relations with Gaza, which did not immediately [reply]."
After all, what's the hurry? Israel's military, its Gaza-relations agency and its government can "do whatever the hell they want," as a certain American politician would put it.
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