Thursday 30 / January / 2025
Gaza Strip: The Gaza Strip's largest hospital has been left without electricity amid ongoing violence and shortages, with doctors reporting the first fatalities as a result, staff members and the territory's Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said.
"The al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza has been left without water, fuel, food, electricity and telecommunications, with thousands of people inside, including wounded, patients and displaced people," said the ministry.
Operations at the hospital were said to have been suspended because of the lack of power, and those needing life support were at risk, the ministry said.
"As a result, one newborn baby died inside the incubator, where there are 45 babies," a ministry spokesman told the Reuters news agency.
The ministry also claimed that snipers deployed surrounding the complex were shooting at people who tried to leave or move between the hospital buildings.
Israel says it does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties, and that Hamas militants have tunnels under civilian facilities. An Israeli spokesperson has previously claimed that Hamas' headquarters lie under al-Shifa hospital.
The World Health Organisation on Friday said the al-Shifa hospital had been "coming under bombardment", with 20 hospitals in Gaza now out of action entirely.
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Margaret Harris said staff at al-Shifa hospital were "terrified" and were dealing with "enormous numbers of injured people with no supplies."
Harris said there weren't enough beds at the hospital and that people were staying on the floor or in corridors of the building. She said healthcare workers are "in fear of their own lives while trying to save other lives."
Asked whether hospitals are being targeted by the Israeli military, Harris said: "We don't identify or assign blame, but we've seen more attacks on healthcare during this 4-week period than we've seen ever before. It's unprecedented."
"Healthcare is never a target, that's very clear under international law," she said.
Referring to humanitarian pauses, Harris said: "We have not seen a difference that is going to enable us to give sustained aid … that we need to provide."
"We need a sustained humanitarian cease-fire in order to bring teams in, bring supplies in, and get people out," she stressed. "This is not happening."
She said that the WHO managed to get some medical supplies to al-Shifa hospital on Tuesday, but no food, water or fuel.
