‘Bombing all around us’, says Nasser Hospital doctor
Dr Ahmed al-Moghrabi, the head of the plastic surgery and burns department at Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital, explained that shortly before speaking to Al Jazeera, the sound of Israeli bombing had been heard near the hospital. “[I expect] the ambulances will bring patients from these explosions, as a result of the bombing,” said al-Moghrabi.
With fears growing that the Nasser Hospital will face an attack similar to the devastating Israeli attack on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, thousands of displaced people who have sought shelter in the hospital and its grounds have fled. Al-Moghrabi is worried about what may come. “If it happens, it will be a real horror,” he told Al Jazeera. “I pray to God that this will not happen… We are not a target. I know that Israel has already crossed all red lines… but this is the main hospital in the south of Gaza. I hope that this will not happen. If it happens, I cannot tell you how catastrophic it will be.”
Al-Moghrabi has attempted to get his own family out of the Nasser Hospital, where they have been sheltering. But a trip to Rafah was fruitless. “[I’m] staying at Nasser to face my fate,” al-Moghrabi said. “Whatever it will cost, I’ll be here at Nasser with my family. There is no place to go. There is no safe place. Rafah is a populated area, there is no clean water, no food, nothing there. Even I couldn’t find a tent for my family there, so I brought my family back to Nasser Hospital.”
“I feel… as a surgeon here, that Israel is fighting women and children… How many of us have to do die… How many days do we have to go on in this situation?”
Soldiers ‘fell in vain’ if Israel accepts deal with Hamas, says Netanyahu
Despite growing calls from Israelis – including leading politicians – pointing out the incompatibility of Israel’s stated twin war goals of eradicating Hamas and freeing captives held in Gaza, the prime minister has rejected the possibility of a deal to end the war.
“In exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands an end to the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all murderers and rapists from Nukhba [Hamas’s elite forces] and the continuation of Hamas in power,” said Netanyahu. “If we accept this, our soldiers have fallen in vain. If we accept this, we won’t be able to guarantee the safety of our own citizens. We will not be able to bring evacuees home safely and the next October 7 will only be a matter of time.”
Critics have accused Netanyahu of continuing the war in the hope of extending his stay in power.
‘There is no peace camp’ in Israel
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says if elections were to be held in Israel, a general like Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot would likely replace Netanyahu. “This is the alternative to Netanyahu – either fascists and fanatics to his right or warmongers to his left or any one in his [Likud] party that’s probably just as hardline as he is,” Bishara said.
“That’s the problem in Israel today; after 75 years of occupation, dispossession, sieges and so forth, it’s becoming so radicalised that there is no peace camp.”
