The occupation arrested a number of medical staff at Nasser Hospital (Anatolia)

Concern is growing today, Saturday, about the situation of patients trapped in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, which the Israeli occupation army stormed, arrested a number of its staff, and tightened the siege on it.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip warned that the occupation forces are still detaining a large number of staff, patients and displaced people at Nasser Hospital and interrogating them in harsh and inhumane conditions.

She also said that the occupation forces arrested a large number of staff from the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, which they turned into a military barracks.

It stated that the occupation authorities are keeping 5 health personnel and 120 patients in the old Nasser complex without electricity, water, food, or oxygen. The ministry also confirmed that the occupation prevents the transfer of injured people who are in serious condition from the complex to other hospitals in order to save their lives.

It warned that electricity is still cut off from the complex as a result of the generators stopping, which threatens death in cases requiring oxygen.

The ministry said that the occupation army has been detaining a World Health Organization aid convoy 50 meters from the Nasser complex for 7 hours. The convoy includes high-ranking international figures, in addition to two trucks, one loaded with fuel and the other loaded with water and food.

She pointed out that the Israeli occupation built holes in front of and behind the UN aid convoy to prevent it from reaching the Nasser Medical Complex.

For its part, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that the occupation army arrested about 100 people in the medical complex and described them as suspects.

Earlier Friday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the deaths of patients in Nasser Medical Hospital had risen to 5 as a result of the power outage and the depletion of oxygen following the Israeli army’s storming of it.

She expressed her fear that other patients in intensive care, and three in the nursery, would die at any moment as a result of their oxygen being cut off.

Imminent danger

Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al-Kaila, warned of the destruction of Nasser Medical Hospital at the hands of the Israeli army, while the displaced, patients, and medical staff there face “liquidation,” and she appealed to international organizations to quickly intervene to protect them.

On Thursday, Israeli forces stormed the Nasser Medical Complex, the largest and most important in the south of the Gaza Strip, after forcing thousands of displaced people to leave it, according to eyewitnesses and official Palestinian sources.

In a statement on Thursday, the government media office in Gaza considered that the complex had been turned into a cemetery and barracks for the occupation forces, “which constitutes a clear and complete war crime, and a crime against all international treaties.”

The occupation announced yesterday, Thursday, that its forces entered the hospital based on “reliable intelligence information” indicating that “hostages” who were taken in the attack were in the facility, and that the bodies of some of them may still be inside, but it later said that it had not yet found evidence to prove this.

In recent days, fierce fighting broke out near the hospital, one of the main medical facilities still in service in the Strip.

According to the World Health Organization, Nasser Hospital, one of 11 hospitals still open out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip before the war, is barely functioning.

No shelter

On the other hand, Palestinian journalist Muhammad Al-Helu published an influential video clip in which he confirmed that they did not find shelter after they were forcibly left the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

The video documented their use of the front seats of a car to sleep in in a very crowded way, while the back seats were filled with their displacement belongings. The journalist said that they were sleeping like this for the third day in a row.

Since January 22, the Israeli army has launched a series of intense air and artillery raids on Khan Yunis and around the city's hospitals, amid ground advances by its vehicles in the southern and western regions, which has pushed thousands of Palestinians to flee.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that has left tens of thousands of civilian casualties, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive infrastructure destruction.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies