Discussion thread for the Hamas Attacks Israel thread, October 2023

[Banquet_Bear]

…when you look at the aftermath of the strike that killed both Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya: (Link to Twitter, I’ve spoiled the link even though the destruction is so total that you can’t really see anything)

https://twitter.com/BeckettUnite/status/1743938367945937366

You see it was the result of a precision strike of the sorts that we know Israel is capable of, that they’ve used multiple times in the past to take out Hamas senior operatives. A single car, in the middle of the street, nothing else around. So many other journalists in Gaza were killed in their homes with their families while they slept. The official number of verified journalist deaths in Gaza is 72. The running total in Wiki including those killed in Southern Lebanon is 86. The toll including people like social media influencers is over 100. The war on journalists continues.

List of journalists killed in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war

As does the war on hospitals. The latest hospital in the firing line, Al-Aqsa Hospital in the middle of Gaza.

The latest update from Tedros:

@WHO

.

@WHO

has received troubling reports of increasing hostilities and ongoing evacuation orders near the vital Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Middle Area of #Gaza, which according to the facility’s director forced over 600 patients and most health workers to leave. Their locations are not currently known.

…

The health facility reported immense needs, especially health workers, medical supplies and beds. But staff said their greatest need was for their hospital, and its staff, patients and families there, to be protected from strikes and hostilities.

…

No hospitals are fully functioning in Northern Gaza, where another WHO mission was cancelled today due to dangers and lack of necessary permissions. Elsewhere in Gaza, a mere handful of health facilities operate.

At Al-Aqsa, WHO staff saw sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors. An unidentified child laid dead, partially covered by a sheet, on a bed. Other injured were prostrate on the floor, being stepped over by the health staff and families. A man’s harrowing groans, either from pain or anguish, cut through the emergency ward’s commotion.

…

Al-Aqsa is extremely short-staffed. Partners at

@MedicalAidPal

and

@RESCUEorg

announced today that due to increasing military activity around Al-Aqsa Hospital they have been forced to withdraw their staff working at the hospital and cease activities. On 6 Jan

@MSF

took similar action due to evacuation orders in areas close to the hospital.

During today’s mission, we were informed that evacuation orders and lack of safety had forced most health staff to leave. Tonight’s reports indicate that only 5 doctors remain. Hospital management said health workers had no food.

…

Al-Aqsa is the most important hospital remaining in Gaza’s Middle Area and must remain functional, and protected, to deliver its lifesaving services. Further erosion of its functionality cannot be permitted – doing so in the face of such trauma, injury and humanitarian suffering would be a moral and medical outrage.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

The announcement from MSF from a couple of days ago where they announced they were pulling their staff out of the hospital:

@MSF

After days of artillery fighting in #Gaza’s Middle Area and following late morning evacuation order flyers dropped by Israeli forces for neighborhoods around #AlAqsa hospital where MSF works, MSF took the difficult decision to evacuate staff and their families from the area.

“It is with heavy conscience that we have to evacuate while patients, hospital staff and many people seeking safety remain in the hospital premises,” says Carolina Lopez, emergency coordinator at Al-Aqsa hospital.

Yesterday, at 13:30, a bullet heavily penetrated a wall in Al-Aqsa hospital’s intensive care unit. Over the last couple of days, drone attacks and snipers fire were just a few hundred meters from the hospital.

“The situation became so dangerous that some staff living in the neighbouring areas were not able to leave their houses because of the constant threats of drones and snipers,” says Lopez. “Patient care was being affected with reduced staff at the hospital.”

“We reiterate that Israel has an obligation under International Humanitarian Law to protect patients and staff who are still working in the only functioning hospital in Gaza’s Middle Area,” Lopez added.

MSF International

We can see the impact of how Israel have targeted other hospitals in Gaza. Under threat of imminent siege and possibly disappearing into the black-hole of Israeli detention, staff are abandoning the hospital. And nobody can blame them. The international organizations have mostly pulled out. This is an utterly nightmarish, dystopian, completely avoidable situation.