Hospitals in Gaza, surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks, neared the point of collapse on Saturday as fuel and water supplies ran low and electricity went out. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was "shocked and appalled" by reports from the hospitals, and Doctors Without Borders called the situation at Gaza's largest health care center, al-Shifa, "catastrophic," the Washington Post reports. Two premature infants died at that hospital when power to the incubators was cut, health officials said. The increased fighting reportedly prevented people from fleeing the hospitals.
Al-Shifa has been powered by generators for weeks. But without fuel to run them after Israel stopped supplies, medical equipment is no longer working, and the hospital has gone dark, per the New York Times. The Israeli military denied launching direct strikes at the hospital. But the head of surgery held out the phone in a call with the AP and said "Listen": gunfire and artillery shelling could be heard outside as Israeli troops and Hamas fighters were engaged in close combat. Hamas controls Gaza. Thousands of people wounded in the fighting, medical staff employees, and displaced civilians had taken shelter at Al-Shifa, but Dr. Marwan Abu Sada said it has become a deathtrap.
A military spokesman for Israel said its troops were not attacking the hospital but were battling Hamas forces "who choose to fight next to al-Shifa Hospital." Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said evacuees will be given safe passage along the east side of the hospital complex, per the Times. "Everyone is on top of one another, displaced people, wounded people, even the medical staff," a resident at al-Shifa said. "They try to save this person and that person, but they can't. There's no electricity or medicine or anything." (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
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