"Power Shortage" Continues to Cause Patient Deaths in Gaza Strip Hospital... "5 Dead"

The Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, has been closed and five patients have died due to deteriorating operating conditions caused by successive Israeli military airstrikes, the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health, governed by Hamas, announced on the 12th (local time).

Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip
[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

The Gaza Strip Ministry of Health stated in a spokesperson's statement that with the closure of Al-Shifa Hospital this morning, no medical services can be provided.

Located in Gaza City, the largest city in the Gaza Strip, Al-Shifa Hospital has been operating since 1946 and is the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip with about 700 beds. Despite serious disruptions to hospital operations, such as power outages caused by over a month of Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip, it was one of the hospitals still partially operating.

Currently, the Israeli military claims that Hamas is hiding military facilities in major hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa Hospital, and using medical staff and patients as human shields. However, Hamas completely denies these claims.

Al-Shifa Hospital is suffering from power shortages due to the destruction of surrounding infrastructure, and as a result, medical devices are not functioning properly, leading to patient deaths. The Israeli Physicians for Human Rights (PHRI), a civilian organization, reported the day before that the neonatal intensive care unit at Al-Shifa Hospital was shut down, resulting in the deaths of two premature infants. The Gaza Strip Ministry of Health stated that including these two, five patients in the hospital died because they could not receive medical treatment due to power outages. It also added that more than 100 bodies of deceased patients remain unburied within the hospital compound.

International organizations are condemning the current situation where the most vulnerable civilian patients cannot escape danger. Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, criticized on X (formerly Twitter) that "Acts of war in medical facilities that leave people without electricity, water, or food, and shooting at patients and civilians trying to escape, can never be justified." The World Health Organization (WHO) also reported that communication with Al-Shifa Hospital was cut off today and expressed "serious concern for the safety of numerous patients, the injured, and displaced persons inside the hospital, including medical staff and newborns on life support."

In response, the Israeli military announced its intention to guarantee safe evacuation routes. Lieutenant Colonel Avihay Adrai, the Israeli military spokesperson in Arabic, said, "From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., we will open Salah al-Din Road from the northern to the southern Gaza Strip for seven hours," and "Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., military activities will be suspended in the Jabalia village and Izbat Malliyan area to allow Palestinians to move south." He also said there would be a safe route from Al-Shifa Hospital via Al-Weda Street to Salah al-Din Road leading to the southern Gaza Strip.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.