Medical staff unable to make mass grave in Shifa Hospital courtyard due to Israeli nonstop shelling: Palestinian Minister

CAIRO- 12 November 2023: More than 100 bodies are in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital as a result of the ongoing Israeli siege of the hospital, said Minister of Health Mai Al-Kaila in media remarks on Sunday.

“The medical teams inside the hospital were unable to make a mass grave in the courtyard due to the seriousness of the field situation,” she added.

She noted that stray dogs began to snap the bodies of martyrs in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital because no place is available to bury them.

Kaila said that priority is given to bringing fuel to hospitals, restoring electricity, and bringing in medical delegations to support exhausted medical crews.

“Our priority is to remove the wounded from hospitals for treatment outside the Gaza Strip,’ she continued.

As of 10 November, a total of 11,078 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza and the West Bank, of whom 4,506 children and 3,027 women. Meanwhile, 27,490 Palestinians have been injured since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7, according to the latest death toll by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

About 2,700 others, including some 1,500 children, have been reported missing and may be trapped or dead under the rubble, the Ministry added on Sunday.

Twenty out of 35 hospitals have completely stopped and gone out of service, announced the Palestinian Minister on Saturday while the vicinity of hospitals in Gaza are being bombed by Israel.

“Damn all international treaties and laws that cannot protect a hospital from bombing and aggression and cannot stop the Israeli machine of destruction and killing against hospitals, doctors, patients, wounded, civilians and the displaced,” she said.

The hospitals are unable to provide their services to the wounded, either because they were directly targeted by Israeli forces, or because they ran out of fuel and went out of electricity, she added, noting that there is a shortage in the number of medical staff all over the strip.

“What is happening now against hospitals is a decision to kill people who are sheltering, as the wounded are dying due to the exhaustion of fuel and medical consumables. Surgical operations are performed without anesthesia and there is no electricity on the lights of mobile phones.

“The catastrophe that is occurring in Gaza now is unprecedented in Palestinian and international history. Hospitals are besieged, bombed, and their patients, medical staff, and displaced people are killed in full view of the entire world,” she continued.

The lives of 39 premature babies in Al-Shifa Hospital are at risk of death at any moment, she said, noting that one of those premature babies died this morning because fuel ran out. The incubators will only be able to work until this evening, she said.