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Situation at al-Shifa Hospital ‘beyond imagination’
Al-Shifa Hospital – due to Israeli attacks and the times it was stormed by the Israeli military – has been reduced to one department only, that is, the emergency ward.
The past hours have been very difficult. Injured patients were left on the floor of the hospital without immediate intervention, simply because there is insufficient medical staff and an acute shortage of medical supplies.
Items as simple as bandages and painkillers are not available. That is the tragedy we see after each attack across the Gaza Strip.
Surgeries are also not taking place inside al-Shifa Hospital because its operating theatre is not working after it was destroyed in the past months by the Israeli military. The hospital is running at its lowest capacity, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without any meaningful medical care.
Apart from this, the many bodies that arrive at the hospital go through a process of identification. This is very difficult given the severe injuries and bleeding, and the fact that many of the bodies arrive fully charred.
It takes time for the medical staff and the surviving family members to identify the bodies, putting more pressure on the hospital.
Israel’s war on Gaza leading to ‘staggering rise’ in miscarriages and still births, doctor says
Israel’s war on Gaza and the famine taking hold there is having a devastating impact on pregnant women and creating a “staggering rise” in still births, miscarriages, pre-term births, and low birth weight in the Strip, Brenda Kelly, a consultant obstetrician from Oxford University Hospital, has told Al Jazeera.
She said that starving pregnant women in Gaza are simply not getting enough of the building blocks for life – such as protein, carbs and fats – and cannot access essential micronutrients such as iron, folic acid, iodine and zinc, which are essential for healthy organ and cellular development in the developing baby and the placenta.
Even before October 2023, the Israeli blockade on Gaza had already compromised the health of pregnant women [in Gaza], who were struggling with conditions like anaemia, she said.
“But what we’re seeing now is the direct fallout of Israel’s weaponising of hunger in Gaza – impacting babies’ growth and growth restriction is one of the leading causes of miscarriages and stillbirth.”
She said the severe malnutrition among pregnant women is being compounded by severe stress and psychological trauma, as well as repeated displacement and a lack of safe shelter.
“Severe malnutrition weakens the immune system, so when you couple that with hardly any access to water or to hygiene facilities, we’re also seeing a rising level of infections in pregnancy, which is also going to be contributing to pregnancy loss,” she added.
It's in the genocide playbook:
Article 2d Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
Gaza ‘losing a future generation of children’
Gaza is “losing a future generation of children” and those who survive to adulthood will face heightened health risks, obstetrician Brenda Kelly told Al Jazeera.
“We know that famine experienced in-utero has lifelong consequences for children who then go into adulthood with much higher risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as mental health disorders,” Kelly, a subspecialist in maternal and fetal medicine at Oxford University Hospital, said.
Kelly added that Israel’s decimation of health infrastructure in Gaza means that women who do lose babies have no access to psycho-social support.
“We know the impact that this personal tragedy has for women, we know the guilt that we carry, but for many women it’s simply not safe to leave where they are to cross and try to reach the nearest health facility,” she said.
“And there are so few health facilities there, the repeated displacement of women and their families throughout Gaza makes it virtually impossible for women to know which facilities are open and get that care.”
More than 300 miscarriages recorded in 80 days in Gaza
As Israel continues its blockade on Gaza, basic medical supplies such as iron supplements and prenatal vitamins have long since disappeared from shelves and clinics.
Israeli forces kill 75 people in Gaza since dawn
At least 75 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids across the Gaza Strip since dawn today, sources in Gaza hospitals have told Al Jazeera.
Sources said that 33 bodies arrived at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, six arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, and 36 arrived at the al-Shifa and al-Ahli Arab hospitals in Gaza City.
Hamas confirms leader of Mujahideen movement killed in Gaza
The secretary-general of the Mujahideen movement, Sheikh Asaad Abu Sharia, and his brother, Ahmed Abu Sharia, were killed in an Israeli attack on the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, Hamas has confirmed.
Hamas said in a statement on Telegram that the assassinations are “part of a series of brutal massacres against civilians”.
Medical sources earlier told Al Jazeera that 16 people were killed, including six children, in Sabra, with at least 50 wounded. Another 85 people are still under the rubble of the targeted building.
