The Palestinian authorities announced this Sunday the closure of the Al Shifa hospital after the increasing attacks registered in the vicinity and due to the lack of electricity, a situation that has made operations in the largest hospital complex in Gaza impossible. Likewise, he has confirmed that two premature babies and a patient of the intensive care unit have died due to the lack of electricity and resources.

A spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health has confirmed the closure and has specified that it is no longer viable to offer services doctors at the center, especially after the death of five patients – two of them premature babies – due to blackouts. Likewise, he has pointed out that more than a hundred bodies are still in the hospital without the possibility of being buried.

The clashes between Israeli forces and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) continue in the vicinity of the hospital, where the Israeli Army claims that the “headquarters” of the Palestinian armed group is located. Palestinian sources have indicated that Thousands of doctors, patients and displaced people are trapped in the area without electricity or sufficient supplies. In Al Shifa 37 neonates left who need incubators, but “without electricity they cannot survive,” the Palestinian authorities have added about the situation in that hospital, with which The World Health Organization said today it had lost all communication.

However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have assured that they will help evacuate the babies who are in the hospital during the next few hours, according to information collected by the newspaper ‘Haaretz’. Israeli authorities have again accused Hamas of having established its “central command” under the hospital and of using the medical center and the civilian population as “human shields” to protect its bunkers and underground tunnels. Thus, they have urged staff and patients to leave the area towards the south of the Gaza Strip as much as possible to “avoid damage” while the IDF tries to “isolate and take control” of the northern area of ​​​​the Gaza Strip. the fringe.

The Palestinian authorities insist that Israeli forces continue to carry out air and artillery strikes as who are trying to attack the hospital complex, which already lacks minimal services, as reported by the Palestinian news agency WAFA. The Gaza Ministry of Health estimates that the hospital has about 1,500 patients, more than a thousand medical staff and almost 20,000 displaced people.