Gaza's largest hospital digs a mass grave as Israeli bombardment continues
Updated November 14, 2023 at 1:28 PM ET
TEL AVIV, Israel — Gaza's largest hospital reports that it has buried more than 100 people in a mass grave, as it says bodies are decomposing in its courtyard and babies are dying because their incubators have no power.
The conditions at Al-Shifa Hospital, and other medical facilities in Gaza, are worsening to new unimaginable levels, according to health officials and humanitarian groups on the ground.
There is no water or food for patients or staff at Al-Shifa, according to Palestinian health officials.
Doctors Without Borders has medical teams at Al-Shifa, which is located in Gaza City.
"Our staff is saying there is no electricity," said Paul Caney, the group's emergency coordinator. "People are staying in the corridors because of sniper fire near the windows and that they cannot move any of the patients to ambulances."
There are more than 600 inpatients at Al-Shifa, 37 babies and at least one patient in need of an ICU, the organization said, citing one of its surgeons who is inside the hospital. The surgeon described the situation as "inhuman."
Hospitals have run out of fuel to power their generators, including Al-Shifa and Al-Quds in the north of Gaza, and have ceased to function as medical facilities.
"Al Ahli Hospital, in Gaza city ... is reportedly the sole medical facility able to receive patients, amid increasing shortages and challenges," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
There are 35 hospitals in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Officials report a rising death toll as Israel continues its siege on the region in response to the Oct. 7 attacks by the militant group Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis.
More than 11,200 Palestinians in Gaza have died, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. An additional 196 Palestinians in the West Bank have died since Oct. 7, according to health officials in Gaza.
However, the health officials said there have been challenges in updating the tally for the third day in a row due to service and communication disruptions.
Without fuel, the Gazan hospitals' youngest patients are suffering the most.
Al-Shifa ran out of fuel on Saturday. Three premature babies have died since then, according to health officials in Gaza.
Early Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had offered to transfer incubators to Al-Shifa Hospital from a hospital in Israel in a display of what it said was the military's commitment to distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters as its operations in Gaza unfold.
"The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is willing to work with any reliable mediating party to ensure the transfer of the incubators," a military statement said.
The military also released what it described as a recording of a phone call between an IDF officer and the director-general of Al-Shifa Hospital in which the two parties apparently agree to the transfer of 37 incubators and four respirators for children. The authenticity of the recording could not be independently verified.
The Ministry of Health also reported Tuesday that the bodies of 170 Palestinians were buried in a mass grave in the hospital's courtyard due to the ongoing siege.
The continued fighting has also meant other injured patients and displaced Palestinians who fear evacuating to the south are crowded into hospitals in the north for shelter.
Israel says it has focused on some hospitals in Gaza because it says Hamas is operating from military facilities underneath them, an allegation Hamas denies.
On Monday, the Israeli military released a video showing what it claims to be Hamas tunnels underneath Al-Rantisi Hospital. Israeli military officials said that they found weapons under the hospital, which they said is evidence of Hamas' operations there.
NPR can't independently confirm these details, but Hamas is denying it used the hospital as a military headquarters.
Gaza health officials said the basement was "included in the design of the hospital and includes the administration and hospital stores. It has become a shelter place for displaced people fleeing the bombing to take shelter inside the hospital."
One hospital still stands, according to aid and the U.N.
As Gaza's hospitals go dark, one facility remains: Al-Ahli Hospital, according to the U.N. and Palestinian health officials.
Through spotty connection over Zoom late Sunday, British-Palestinian Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta told the press and international medical community that he is treating patients in a nearly impossible situation at Al-Ahli.
Sitta was speaking in a call organized by the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.
He said the hospital was dealing with more than 500 wounded and has just three operating rooms, no access to a blood bank, no morphine or ketamine to help patients deal with pain and physically and mentally exhausted staff.
"You know, I did an amputation on a 6-year-old yesterday, her arm and her leg. My colleagues were working in the other room on a kid with shrapnel in his abdomen," Sitta said. "And colleagues told me he has no surviving family. So now the family in the bed next to his are looking after him."
He compared the situation facing the doctors and nurses at the hospital to what medical staff were dealing with in World War I.
He said, "The situation is beyond dire."
Jaclyn Diaz and Greg Myre reported from Tel Aviv. Ruth Sherlock reported from Rome. Aya Batrawy reported from Cairo. [Copyright 2023 NPR]
