(Gaza) There are thousands of them, trapped: families thought they were safe in the al-Chifa hospital in Gaza but the fighting is at the gates of the establishment and the strikes are incessant. To the point that no one dares to move.
“If we go out, we will be cut down by shrapnel,” says Ahmed al-Shawa, 18, who came to al-Chifa after fleeing his neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa, in Gaza City where troops Israeli forces are fighting the Palestinian movement Hamas.
But if this young person stays inside, he runs the risk of also finding himself under bombs while for the 36e consecutive day, war rages in the Gaza Strip.
PHOTO KHADER AL ZANOUN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
On October 7, Hamas, in power in the small Palestinian territory, perpetrated a bloody attack on an unprecedented scale in Israel, which left, according to the Israeli authorities, 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians. Israeli retaliatory strikes have left more than 11,000 dead in Gaza, according to the Hamas health ministry.
Ambulances at a standstill
Like all the other displaced people from al-Chifa, Ahmed al-Chawa has already left the hospital courtyard to settle in the crowded wards of the establishment which welcomes thousands of displaced people in addition to patients.
Because outside, shrapnel rained down on the displaced and their frail tents, he said, according to one of the testimonies collected by a journalist working with AFP.
The Israeli army claims for its part that there was “no shooting at the hospital and no siege” of the establishment.
“There is fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas around the hospital,” according to Israeli Colonel Moshe Tetro. “Even now, if someone wants to leave, they can […]the army can ensure coordination for anyone who wants to leave the hospital safely,” according to him.
PHOTO KHADER AL ZANOUN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Everywhere, in the corridors, between the beds, sick people, injured people, families are crowded together.
The UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that “Israeli bombardments around hospitals in Gaza City and in the northern Gaza Strip have intensified” since Friday.
“There are strikes ten meters from the hospital,” assures Ahmed al-Chawa, trying to cover the artillery fire with his voice.
He is trying to evacuate his family to head south, as the Israeli army has ordered for weeks. It is progressing from the north and continues to sink, according to her, into “the heart of Gaza City”.
“The bombings are so close, my children are crying and screaming with fear,” wrote a nurse from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) operating at the hospital, according to a message relayed by the NGO.
Mohammed says he will stay “until the end, whatever happens”. He is an ambulance driver and he does not want to abandon al-Chifa even if at the moment, he says, he cannot do his job.
“We cannot go and look for the injured, since yesterday, snipers have been shooting directly at our ambulances,” he assures.
Operate by candle
The Israeli army has for years accused Hamas of “cynically using hospitals” by hiding fighters, weapons or tunnels there. And she confirmed having hit an ambulance on November 3 in front of al-Chifa, “used, according to her, by a Hamas terrorist cell.”
Despite everything, the director of the hospital, Mohammed Abou Salmiya, repeats: “we will stay and we will not leave here, whatever the cost”. “We will operate by candlelight”, he promises, while during the night “the electricity was cut for four hours” after a “generator was hit by the strikes”.
In the morning, at 3:25 a.m. (Eastern time) then at 3:45 a.m. (Eastern time), the Hamas government announced “strikes” and “bombings by the occupier” (Israeli) on al-Chifa and its “department of surgery”.
On Saturday, according to the spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qidreh, “one person was killed and many others injured in strikes on the intensive care building” where, according to the hospital, there are around sixty patients.
The Israeli army indicated in the morning that two roads leaving Gaza City to the south were open, as the day before, until mid-afternoon.
But the displaced people of al-Chifa believe that these corridors are out of reach.
Doctor Marwa Abou Saada, head of the al-Chifa surgery department, quoted by the NGO Medical aid for Palestinians (MAP), affirms that “no one can leave the hospital”.
“People who tried to get out were shot at,” he continues. “Some were killed, others injured.”