33 min ago
"All essential units have collapsed," al-Shifa hospital director tells CNN
From CNN’s Abeer Salman in Jerusalem and Kareem Khadder
The conditions inside al-Shifa hospital are “catastrophic” as essential units collapse, hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya told CNN.
Around 7,000 people are currently sheltering in the hospital, along with 1,500 patients and medical staff, said Abu Salmiya.
The hospital has asked the Israeli army for 600 liters of fuel every hour to power its generators, but the army has yet to respond, he added.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said it put 300 liters of fuel at the entrance to the hospital complex, but claimed that Hamas had blocked the hospital from receiving it.
Abu Salmiya told Al Araby TV that staff had been too scared to go out to get it.
“We told the Israeli army that the 300 liters of fuel they offered is not enough to operate the hospital for 30 minutes,” he told CNN.
“There is no more water, food, milk for children and babies .. the situation in the hospital is catastrophic,” Abu Salmiya said.
Al-Shifa Hospital falls under the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. Israel claims that Hamas houses its headquarters below the hospital building. Hospital doctors and Hamas have denied that claim.
CNN also spoke to a reporter for the Al Arabiya network, Khader al Zaanoun, who is inside the hospital.
"Communication is very bad and almost impossible for us to report what is happening in the hospital and its yards, we barely have cell lines but no internet,” he said.
“No one can move or dare to go out of the hospital, the staff here are aware of many strikes that are happening around the hospital, we see smoke coming up from those strikes and we know that there are people in some of those buildings but ambulances do not make their way out of the hospital because… during the last days an ambulance was hit on its way out of the hospital.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said in recent days that there is intense fighting going on in the area around al-Shifa hospital.
On Sunday it said there was a corridor to the east of the hospital that could be used by people on foot, and ambulances. It’s unclear how many of the thousands of displaced people in the hospital compound have been able to use that corridor to leave.
Al Zaanoun said that people inside the hospital “are starving, there is no food or drinkable water, we barely get tap water for one hour a day.”
Conditions at the Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, are "catastrophic" as essential units have collapsed, the facility's director told CNN.
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