Medical aid organizations warned on Saturday about the conditions at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s main medical facility.
Doctors Without Borders said early Saturday that its staff at the hospital “reported a catastrophic situation inside just a few hours ago,” according to a posting on X.
“We’re currently unable to contact any of our staff inside Al-Shifa, and we are extremely concerned about the safety of patients and the medical staff. Patients are still in the hospital, some in critical condition and unable to move,” the humanitarian organization said.
The BBC quoted a surgeon at the hospital who said that the main intensive care unit had been hit and that there was no water, food or electricity. A spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the Gaza Strip told Reuters that a baby died in an incubator after the facility lost power, and another was killed by an Israeli shell in intensive care.
Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the “unbearably desperate situation for patients & staff trapped inside must stop.”
Earlier Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to stop bombing and killing women and babies, in an interview with the BBC. “Today, civilians are bombed. … These babies, these women, these old people are bombed and killed,” Macron said. “There is no reason for that and no legitimacy.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Macron by saying the responsibility for civilian deaths lies with Hamas. “These crimes that Hamas-ISIS is committing today in Gaza, will tomorrow be committed in Paris, New York and everywhere around the world. World leaders must condemn Hamas-ISIS and not Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement from his office.
The Israel Defense Forces said there is “ongoing intense fighting against Hamas in the vicinity,” when asked about military activity around the hospital.
