‘We will leave when the last Palestinian leaves’: The defiant last stand of the doctors of Kamal Adwan Hospital – Mondoweiss
For 75 days, doctors in this north Gaza hospital have withstood the Israeli army's attempts to forcibly evacuate them and their patients. In the face of death, the doctors are still refusing to leave, even as the army steps up its attacks. Patients are trying to sleep inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. But just outside, they can see a remote-controlled robot carrying explosives sent by the Israeli army. It’s only a matter of time before the bomb is detonated. Tanks and bulldozers move around the hospital and in front of its entrances all day long. The sounds of explosions and bullets do not stop. Inside the hospital, there is a constant state of panic. With each new explosion or round of fire, patients flee from one wing of the hospital to another, crowding in the narrow hospital corridors to sleep like sardines, hoping that they will be safe. This is the current reality at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, one of the last semi-functioning hospitals in northern Gaza. For 75 days, the hospital has been under siege by the Israeli army, which has banned the entry of food, medicine, and water, while periodically cutting off communications inside the hospital, preventing doctors and patients from communicating with the outside world. Not to mention the constant bombings. In recent days, the army has stepped up its attacks on the hospital. According to witnesses, the Israeli army has deployed the use of remote-controlled robots, which approach the hospital gates, the surrounding areas, and its courtyard, dropping boxes filled with explosives that are later detonated remotely. The Israeli army has attacked the hospital dozens of times over the past 10 days, and in addition to the remote-controlled explosives, the army has been firing live bullets and artillery fire at the hospital, and has also been using drones and quadcopters in its attacks. https://twitter.com/MahaGaza/status/1871857524280115582https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/1871986930973614524 “Yesterday we went through a difficult night that no one can imagine. At dawn, there was violent and direct targeting of the intensive care unit, Dr. Muhammad Barid told Mondoweiss from inside the ICU at the hospital on Tuesday, December 24. “Some of the effects are still present. Shells fell and set fires inside the department. The department is crowded with cases because the intensive care unit in Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only department operating in the northern Gaza Strip,” he said. Dr. Barid highlights the grim reality facing patients in the intensive care unit, emphasizing that most patients are heavily dependent on ventilators, and require constant care from medical staff. The intensive care unit, which is designed to accommodate only 16 patients, is now treating 47 individuals. Due to lack of supplies and a staff who are stretched thin, patients receive treatment only once a day instead of the usual three times, while patients with wounds struggle are given just one dressing change without further evaluation. Those inside, including both patients and medical staff, rely on limited supplies that have managed to enter the hospital via humanitarian organizations and medical delegations amidst the prolonged siege. Ahmed Al-Barawi, a wounded man lying in the hospital recounts the horrific experiences that have made it impossible for him to recover. He expresses that the dire circumstances he faces—due to treatment shortcomings and a lack of essential medical supplies—has transformed the hospital into something unrecognizable. “It’s a hospital in name only. The [Israeli] occupation has stripped even the most basic levels of care from us,” he said. “We suffer daily due to inadequate medical supplies, receiving only what amounts to first aid. Meanwhile, the shelling and continuous gunfire at the hospital add to our despair,” Al-Barawi explains. He details the events from the previous day, December 23, when the hospital and its vicinity were targeted over ten times. According to him, electric generators were set ablaze, buildings were damaged, and patients were harmed by shattered doors and glass. “Yesterday, they placed a robot next to the hospital and detonated it. We had to flee from our beds and spent the whole night in the corridors. Shelling and shooting were everywhere.” https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1871592532288679996 Al-Barawi continues: “The hospital has become a place where people die rather than receive care,” adding that not only is medicine in short supply, but so are food and water. “We urge the world to pay attention, to stand with us even just once, and help us against this enemy and this siege—the pain we experience is unbearable for any human being. We are humans, if you know what humanity means, not the animals the Israeli occupation claims we are.” Dr. Barid expresses profound frustration at the lack of international response to months-long calls from doctors at the hospital to stop the army’s attacks. “There is no justification that gives anyone the right to target such places. We have repeatedly appealed to the world to provide protection for hospitals, but unfortunately, no one responded. There are no messages left to send.hank you to the world,” he finishes sarcastically. ‘We will fulfill our oath as doctors’ The current situation at the Kamal Adwan Hospital underscores the dire situation facing healthcare providers and patients across Gaza. What were once places of healing have been turned into war zones by Israel. Since October 5, the Israeli army has been carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign in north Gaza, as part of ‘The General’s Plan’. Starting in Jabalia, the army imposed a crippling siege aimed at starving residents out, while also intensifying its military attacks. Since then, the army has extended the siege and attacks to all areas in the north, such as Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, forcing people to go south, towards Gaza City. It is estimated that of the more than 200,000 inhabitants of northern Gaza that were present as of October this year, some thousands remain. Part of the army’s strategy to force people out of the north, residents say, is by further crippling the already devastated healthcare system. Throughout the siege, the army has stepped up its attacks on civil defense teams and first responders, bombing their outposts and attacking their crews, essentially making it impossible for the wounded to be rescued or treated. As the last functioning hospital in north Gaza, the Kamal Adwan Hospital has become one of the primary targets of the Israeli military operations. According to doctors at the hospital, over the course of 75 days, the Israeli army has killed 17 medical personnel from the hospital, injured over 50 others, and arrested 46 individuals from the hospital grounds. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital director, who himself has been targeted by Israeli army bullets, says the attacks on the hospital are unfounded. He noted that the Israeli army had previously raided the hospital’s ICU in November 2023, at which time no evidence was found to justify Israel’s claims that hospitals were being used by Hamas or other armed groups. The Israeli army is “aware of its [the hospital’s] purpose, as there are no other facilities providing such care in the northern Gaza Strip,” Dr. Abu Safiya states,describing the targeting of the hospital as violent and terrifying, likening it to a war zone. “I don’t know why we are being bombed in this way. It is clear that the bombing was done with the aim of killing, based on the level of fire on the walls,” Abu Safiya says. “This is a dangerous matter, and we have asked the world, and are still asking, for international protection.” “What we seek is to neutralize the hospital from bombing and targeting. This facility provides humanitarian services and is filled only with patients, companions, the injured, and medical staff. Why we are being bombed in this way, I don’t know,” he says. Since the onset of the Israeli army’s invasion of the northern Gaza Strip in early October, Dr. Abu Safiya has been actively urging for measures to be taken to safeguard the lives of patients and assist the wounded. However, in the wake of no international response, the Israeli army has continued to enforce a suffocating siege on the facility in an effort to drive the patients and doctors out, along with all residents who refuse to leave northern Gaza. “For 75 days, we have been calling on the world for international protection for the health system. These are laws established by the Geneva Conventions, which stipulate the protection of the health system,” Dr. Abu Safiya says. “Where are these laws? What sin did we commit in this hospital to be bombed and killed in this way?” As Dr. Abu Safiya speaks, two massive explosions can be heard in the background.”This is the case all day and night; we are bombarded with these bombs. The shrapnel is flying as we speak in front of the world. We are bombed all day and night like this, either around the hospital or inside it.” Despite the horrific conditions at the hospital, doctors inside Kamal Adwan insist that they are dedicated to the humanitarian oath they took when they began their medical careers, vowing to provide care to those in need. They are resolute about remaining in the hospital, refusing to leave under any circumstances. “We will leave when the last Palestinian leaves the northern Gaza Strip,” Dr. Abu Safiya declared defiantly. “We will stay and serve those who are here. This is a humanitarian mission, and our message to the world is that we deliver humanitarian care and should not be obstructed. We committed ourselves to providing for those in need, and we will fulfill our oath as doctors here at Kamal Adwan Hospital.” Mohammed Al-Sharif contributed to this report from inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#34263): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/34263 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/110288506/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
