“Under Siege”: Hospital Director in N. Gaza Refuses to Leave Patients Amid Israeli Evacuation Orders

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Gaza, where Israeli warplanes bombed a tent encampment on the grounds of Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah earlier this morning. At least four Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, as the bombing set off a massive fire in an area packed with tents housing displaced people who had sought safety at the hospital. Survivors said they lost everything in the fire.

UMM MAHMOUD WADI: [translated] At 1:10 a.m., we woke up in shock to find a fire rising here. What can I say? I quickly ran with my daughters. I woke them up and quickly rushed to Al-Aqsa Hospital. What can I say? Everything has burned. Everything. As you see, I’m a mother of seven daughters. Where shall I go? My tent has collapsed, destroyed. All our clothes and belongings are gone. Who should we speak to? Where is the safety? We are calling on all countries, the whole world, to stand by our side and stop the war on us. We are exhausted. We’ve had enough.

AMY GOODMAN: The attack came hours after Israel bombed a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp. At least 22 people were killed in the attack. The U.N. reports it had planned to use the site, the Mufti School, to give out polio vaccinations today.

On Saturday, another Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed a family of eight — a mother, father and their six children, with the youngest being just 8 years old.

On Friday, Israeli strikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least 20 people and injured dozens. Israel’s intensifying attacks on the northern Gaza comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering implementing a “surrender or starve” policy in the area.

On Friday, Doctors Without Borders said thousands of residents are trapped in Jabaliya. The group said, quote, Nobody is allowed to get in or out. Anyone who tries is getting shot,” they said. One Palestinian diplomat, Majed Bamya, decried the Israeli siege, saying, quote, “What is happening in northern Gaza now is a genocide within the genocide.”

For more, we go to northern Gaza, where we’re joined by Dr. Mohammed Salha, acting director of the Jabaliya camp’s Al-Awda Hospital. He says the hospital will continue its operations and refuse Israel to evacuate under any circumstances.

We welcome you, Doctor, to Democracy Now! Can you describe what’s happening now at Al-Awda?

DR. MOHAMMED SALHA: Yes. Actually, this is the 10th day of the Israeli occupation forces siege Jabaliya camp and northern Gaza, Gaza Strip. And they’re doing a lot of massacres this morning. The Israeli occupation forces, they are bombing the distribution center of UNRWA, and many of our people are killed, and a lot of them are injured. Al-Awda Hospital, ’til now, we’re receiving three martyrs and also 42 of injured people. We are doing now three of life-saving operations in our operation theater. And now also we are dealing with another 16 of patients, they are in-patient department. They need operation. Really, the Israeli occupation forces is targeting the civilian people.

And they are going to a distribution center of UNRWA because they are really hungry. They don’t have food since this — from the beginning of this aggression. And the Israeli is not entering the food for Gaza. And if they are entering some food, it’s not enough for these people. So, because of that, the people is going to take food from a distribution center. And they are bombing, bombing them.

We are dealing with many of injuries in our emergency department. And really, we are working under a lot of — syringes and [inaudible] that we don’t have. We have shortage in medication, shortage of medical supplies, and we don’t have that much fuel. WHO is always trying to enter for the hospitals in the northern Gaza, trying to entering fuel and medication, medical supplies, but always the Israeli occupation forces, they refuse to enter these for the hospitals, especially in the northern Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mohammed Salha, you have — there’s been reports of dead bodies everywhere in Jabaliya. Is that what you see? And describe where exactly Jabaliya is and who is still there.

DR. MOHAMMED SALHA: Yes, we have — Jabaliya, Jabaliya camp is a refugee camp. It’s in the northern Gaza governorate. And now the Israelis separate Gaza City on the Jabaliya, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun. This is the three villages that’s now separated from Gaza and Jabaliya, Jabaliya as a town, because they are cutting the streets. Nobody can move from Gaza to Jabiliya or from Jabaliya to Gaza.

Also, the Israelis refuse to refer some cases. They need also operation and intervention into the neurosurgery and also vascular surgeries we don’t have in the north. And also, they refuse many of the people who is really that we can’t — our ambulances can’t go to the military area that the Israeli occupation forces, they are there, so that the people is still there. The injured people or who is sick really and who is injured, they’re still in the streets ’til die. Nobody can go there. And actually, there is many of injured coming from the people who is the Israelis targeting. They are putting the people and the hospital under siege now.

We have in the northern Gaza from 180,000 ’til 200,000 person that’s in the northern Gaza, all of them now without food, without medication, without medical supplies, without the fuel to run these generators, without water. Really, the people is now facing a lot of challenges related there is no access to water, the filtered water and healthy water. And the people who is also — they are bombing this morning some people in front of the shelter. It’s a school, UNRWA school, in Jabaliya camp. These people is going to filling the water in their gallons, and they are bombing these persons, these people. Two of them now in — we’re doing two life-saving operations, explorations for two, one girl and one boy. They are boy and girl. They are not doing anything, and they are bombing them this morning when they are filling the water.

AMY GOODMAN: On Tuesday, the Israeli military issued expulsion orders for three major hospitals in northern Gaza — Kamal Adwan; your hospital, Al-Awda; and the Indonesian Hospital — trapping over 300 critically ill patients, that according to the U.N. Are you evacuating the hospital, Al-Awda?

DR. MOHAMMED SALHA: Now we have the Israeli occupation forces, they are warning us through Ministry of Health. They are sending messages that these three hospitals has to evacuate. And from the beginning of this aggression, Al-Awda Hospital has not evacuated from northern Gaza. We are nongovernment organization. We are working to save our people. And we are refusing to evacuate Al-Awda Hospital because we have many of injured inside our hospital.

I am imagining if there is a last Tuesday that we are evacuate, how many patients will be die? How many women will be die? We are doing many of cesarean section operations for women to give birth. We have normal delivery for women, many of women. And they are still now in the hospitals, because there is a — the Israel is now in their areas, so they can’t go. So there’s still these women. If there is no Al-Awda Hospital, the people will die in the streets. The women will die in the streets, because there is normally need to give birth and there is also injured people. Our department is full of patients. We increased our capacity of beds to respond to this, the huge number of people that they need operation and they need intervention. And we are opening another department nowadays. How we can evacuate, and now we are opening a new department for our people? The people is really in need, so we can’t evacuate Al-Awda Hospital.

The last May, they entered in Al-Awda, and they requested me to evacuate the hospital. But really, I am refusing to evacuate this hospital. So, I told them, “Please, we can’t evacuate, because here we have a lot of injured people. So I will not.” And I am staying here with another 15 of my staff. And they are evacuated, forced to evacuate 130 of my team, and the hospital evacuated them to the western Gaza. And I am still with patients. So, we will not leave our patients behind us. We have to save them. We have to provide and get the healthcare that they need.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, the group Doctors Without Borders says thousands of residents are trapped in Jabaliya. The group said, quote, “Nobody is allowed to get in or out. Anyone who tries to is getting shot.” If you can tell us about your own safety and why you’re choosing to stay, if in fact that is the case, as they say, anyone who tries to get out is getting shot?

DR. MOHAMMED SALHA: Yes, some of the families is trying to go to Gaza, and the Israeli occupation forces, they are shooting them. And actually, they are coming to the hospital. We saw some videos that related that the Israel is shooting the families who was trying to evacuate to Gaza City.

And we have a decision to stay. It’s simply because we have — we will not leave anyone behind us. We will have to save our people. It’s a simple thing. The hospital, we are working under WHO protocol. That means that — WHO protocol means that we have to work under conflict. So, who is — if the hospitals is evacuated, who is will providing these services to the people? Who is will, like, save these people? So, if there is one person in the northern Gaza hospital, Al-Awda Hospital will not evacuate, if there is one person, because we are here to serve our people and to providing health services for them. This is our decision, and we will not leave our people behind us.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mohammed Salha, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, thank you so much for joining us. Please be safe.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, we go to a doctor that just came out of Gaza. Stay with us.