Fighting intensifies around hospitals in northern Gaza
Israeli forces have surrounded several hospitals in northern Gaza. Medical staff say hundreds of patients are at risk, including babies in incubators.
Transcript
00:00 The Israel-Hamas battle intensified around hospitals in northern Gaza, making conditions
00:08 desperate for the medical centres running out of essential supplies and electricity.
00:16 Samira Al Khor's displaced family fled the Al Shifa hospital with her children.
00:22 She described her experience at the city's major health facility.
00:30 We thought the hospital was safe but it wasn't.
00:33 If we had stayed another five minutes, we would have been killed.
00:36 They started to bomb us and we ran away from Al Shifa.
00:40 My son got injured so I left him there in the hospital to get treatment.
00:43 I couldn't take him with me.
00:47 I was tired and afraid.
00:49 I went to my nephew and told him to stay with my son and then we fled.
00:57 Several thousand displaced people have sought shelter in hospitals.
01:03 Medical staff say hundreds of patients are at risk, including several newborn babies
01:08 in incubators.
01:10 The UN's World Health Organization expressed alarm at the situation, saying it has lost
01:16 communication with its contacts at Al Shifa hospital.
01:20 The service is really collapsing there because of the lack of fuel, as well as because of
01:25 the direct attacks of some of the buildings there.
01:28 There is no clean water to run the services, as well as no electricity.
01:32 They are operating on torches, they are operating with no anesthesia and they are really facing
01:37 a very bad situation there in the hospital.
01:41 The Israeli military says its operation is against Hamas.
01:45 It says the Islamist militant group responsible for the October 7 terror attacks on Israel
01:51 has a command post inside and under the hospital compound.
01:57 The Israel Defense Forces denied that the hospital was under siege and agreed to help
02:03 evacuate babies from Gaza's main hospital.
02:07 We're speaking directly and regularly with the hospital staff.
02:12 The staff of the Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow we will help the babies in the
02:18 pediatric department to get to a safer hospital.
02:23 We will provide the assistance needed.
02:28 Although Samira has managed to flee, aid organizations say that Israel's instructions to leave the
02:34 hospital without any safe haven make it unfair and impossible to evacuate, especially for
02:40 the sick and vulnerable patients trapped inside.