Israeli Siege of Al-Shifa Hospital Area Left Over 400 Dead

Palestinian authorities have managed to enter hospital areas in Gaza to count the number of victims killed by Israeli occupation forces, which began an apparent tactical withdrawal earlier in the week.

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“In mid-March, the Israeli Army surprisingly laid siege to the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza before withdrawing on Monday. The images show the material losses. Al-Shifa is completely inoperative, if not unrecoverable. All the buildings were hit by the clashes, bombings and arson attacks,” Philippe Alcoy reported in an article for the French media Revolution Permanente.

“But Al-Shifa was not empty when Israeli forces launched their assault. The Israeli army, which congratulated itself on this macabre spectacle, declared that it had killed 200 Palestinian fighters during an operation that lasted 15 days. It also detained 900 suspects, some of whom were sent to Israel,” he added.

As of April 1, Israeli attacks and siege on the Al-Shifa hospital area left at least 400 dead, the Gaza-based Health Ministry reported based on the number of bodies recovered in the area.

In addition to Israeli occupation forces executing people, many patients died as a result of "lack of access to water and food," said the World Health Organization (WHO), which admitted the deaths. of 21 patients inside that health facility.

On Tuesday, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip asked the international community for help to increase the number of dialysis machines at the Al-Aqsa hospital, the most important in Gaza's central area and one of the few ones still in operation after six months of war.

"Before the genocidal war, the renal department provided dialysis services to only 140 patients. Now, however, it receives 480 patients with kidney problems every week. There are only 22 dialysis machines left, some of which do not even work," the Palestinian authorities said in a message addressed to international institutions such as the Red Cross.

The shortage of supplies forces doctors to see patients only two two-hour sessions per week, when the normal thing is to receive 12 hours of dialysis per week, they added.