Inside Gaza City’s Main Hospital

In Gaza City, as the Israeli army is taking more steps to reach and occupy the heart of the city, and the number of casualties rise, all eyes are once again on the one hospital that used to be the largest and most qualified for such times — al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has stormed and destroyed al-Shifa Hospital more than once. Still, the health ministry in Gaza managed to rebuild some sections and provide medical care to people in one of the places most subjected to ongoing Israeli bombing, Gaza City. 

But with the Israeli army’s recent advance into the city, fears are once again rising of yet another Israeli invasion of the hospital. On top of that, al-Shifa, along with all other hospitals in Gaza, is facing a critical shortage of supplies, blood units, staff, beds and essential medical devices. 

“These are bloody days.” Dr. Hassan Alshaer, medical director at al-Shifa Hospital, said. In recent days, over 60 people have been carried to the hospital dead and over 175 arrive injured at the hospital daily, “most of them in critical condition and in need of surgeries and intensive care units. We only have four operating rooms in the hospital.”

In “eight waves” daily, Alshaer describes, casualties and martyrs come to the hospital, with each wave bringing at least 30 people dead and wounded.

“We are struggling due to the Israeli siege and war, but inside al-Shifa, our mission is health care, and we will provide it until the last moment we can,” Alshaer said. 

Al-Shifa Hospital has struggled to recover following Israel’s previous assaults. Currently, the hospital has only the four operating rooms and 32 ICU beds, but receives over 800 people daily. 

“The extreme shortage we have is in operating rooms; we have so many waiting operations, and the ICU is always full, and there are 20 premature babies in the [neonatal] ICU,” Alshaer said. He expresses his fear about the medical staff, who also witness the extreme danger. 

“We’re scared for our security. Yesterday, the Israeli army assassinated someone at the hospital’s doors, which was a critical danger for all of us as we’re working in the hospital. We have lost 30% of our staff in the hospital, as some were killed, others detained or wounded. We also have a shortage of working personnel,” he told Mondoweiss.

According to Alshaer, there are 562 patients currently in the hospital, and over 50 are waiting their turn for critical surgeries. Daily, dozens of patients get treatment on the 32 dialysis machines.

While it’s a daily struggle to treat patients and secure the necessary medical supplies, Alshaer’s primary concern now is what will happen if al-Shifa once again becomes a target of Israel’s military assault on Gaza City. 

“If the Israeli army evacuates the hospital, inevitable deaths will be faced by so many patients, such as those in the ICU, NICU, and patients with renal failure,” he said. 

“We are facing the invasion of the city with a shortage of water and food for the patients and workers in the hospital.”

Patients in limbo waiting for treatment

Inside the hospital, where most beds lack linens, only the floor is used for patients to lie down on, and some of the beds are in a field medical tent set up outside the hospital to receive casualties. 

Patients are living with the shortage of medical supplies. They are directly impacted as their wounds get worse instead of healing. They describe the situation as desperate, where even water, either to drink or for bathing, is unavailable.

“It’s a really tough situation, patients are lying down in every corner on the ground, there are no beds, no treatment, no medication, we can’t even find gauze for our wounds,” a patient in the hospital, Muhammad Kafarana, told Mondoweiss.

“I’m injured in my back, after I got shot by an explosive. If I was treated on time, I would be well by now, but so far I’m still waiting to get surgery.” 

Kafarana said he and other hospital patients are suffering instead of receiving the treatment they need. “There’s no medication, no water, no food. The doctors come to check on us and stand helpless, because they can’t provide us anything,” he said. 

Days ago, Kafarana says, a group of Israeli special forces soldiers got close to al-Shifa, sending panic throughout the hospital and causing some patients’ wounds to reopen in the commotion. Other patients, who like him are bedridden and unable to walk, were lying there “waiting for our death,” he said. 

Despite the imminent dangers facing the staff and patients at al-Shifa, the hospital remains standing, and staff members are refusing to leave their posts and evacuate. Though the hospital has yet to receive an official evacuation order from the Israeli military, workers say it is only a matter of time.  “We have been besieged inside this hospital before and [at that time] the Israeli army evacuated us by force, but this time we are unaware of the Israeli plans for us,” Alshaer told Mondoweiss.

“We have no idea what comes next, but, for us we are medical teams and we have nothing to do with military activities. We have been here since the beginning of the war, and will stay,” he said.