Israeli Airstrikes Kill Jordanian Hospitals, Intimate Gaza’s Hospital, and the Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi
Several Gaza hospitals have reported damage in recent days as a result of Israeli airstrikes.
For the last few weeks, the hospital has been receiving Israeli soldiers wounded from fighting in Gaza, as well as more than 200 northern residents who have been injured in rocket attacks from Lebanon.
The Red Crescent society stated that an aircraft struck the vicinity of the hospital with two rockets.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza and the United Nations claim that the Nasser Hospital Complex and the Rantissi Children’s Hospital were damaged from direct and indirect strikes.
Health officials in Gaza said that on Nov. 6, Al-Shifa Hospital’s fifth floor was hit by Israeli airstrikes, destroying the building’s solar panels — the facility’s last source for energy. The health officials said that several people, including people who had been displaced, were killed in the attack.
The lack of fuel causes these facilities to struggle to meet the needs of patients, as a result of the constant bombardments.
“Doctors need to have electricity in a hospital to be able to perform surgical operations, and they need surgical material. Now, both of those things are missing in most of hospitals. The fuel is low. They have to ration the last liter of fuel that they use in hospitals, Jasarevic said. “You have to run generators. You also need to have a light. You can’t just do surgeries with the flash flashlight of your mobile phone.”
“According to Israel, Hamas has chosen to set up a military base underneath the hospital. If that is the case, Hamas is committing a war crime that is morally reprehensible and absolutely prohibited under international humanitarian law,” the group said in a statement.
It continued: “Even if there is a military facility operating under the hospital, this does not allow Israel to bomb the site. Such an attack would result in unbearable, horrifying harm to civilians and constitute a war crime — violating the provisions of international humanitarian law that Israel has repeatedly declared its commitment to uphold.”
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi disputed Israel’s claim and said in a statement that the Indonesian Hospital “is a facility built by the Indonesian people entirely for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Galilee isn’t just going underground for safety. The hospital’s first floor is fortified to withstand a missile attack, protecting the trauma department, ambulance bay and other surgical rooms from an attack out of Lebanon.
There are a number of familiar scenes in a hospital, like a father caring for his baby in the room, family members crowding around an ailing loved one, and a nurse drawing blood.
The first hospital in Israel moves underground to keep working amid rockets from Lebanon, according to a leader of the Hezbollah group
In northern Israel, the exchange of rocket fire and artillery with Iran-backed Hezbollah and other armed factions in Lebanon comes daily. There have been dozens of airstrikes in the past few days on both sides of the border. Outside the hospital, it is common to hear air raid sirens and drones.
“We are underground with the patients because we are preparing ourselves to continue taking care of our patients, even under fire,” explains Dr. Masad Barhoum, the director of the hospital. He is wearing a protective vest.
After the crossing of Hamas-backed militant from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel killed more than 1,400 people and took over 260 hostages, the first patients were moved underground in a few hours.
The war has created a limited spillover of conflict between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon.
“I’m not familiar with another facility like this in the whole world,” says Dr. Netanel Horowitz, who is part of the team setting up the garage-turned-hospital in Haifa. If we need to go down tomorrow, it’s ready.
Galilee’s wartime protections were used in Israel’s 2006 war with Lebanon. During that conflict, a missile from Lebanon hit the fourth floor of the hospital. Staff had already moved their medical care underground, so no one was injured in the attack.
The leader of Hezbollah has said he is ready to escalate the war further at any time, if there is an attack in Gaza and a hostile response to Lebanon. In his first speech since the conflict started, he said all scenarios are open on the southern front of Lebanon.
Training an underground hospital to keep working amid rockets from Lebanon: How a nightmare happened during the last few months of working underground to maintain security in Israel
“I’m not afraid myself,” says Dr. Vered Fleisher Sheffer, who runs the unit, “but the safety is so important to our parents and our most vulnerable babies.” The babies being treated at the hospital were delivered as early as 24 weeks, their treatment was seamless as if there wasn’t a war.
Heavy steel doors guard the opening to the first floor trauma center and emergency room. Nearby there’s a shower ready in case Lebanon uses chemical weapons.
Sirhan was working a few weeks ago, when he received a call about an ambulance being on its way in with 4 people injured in a rocket attack near the border. Some of the patients, it turned out, were his relatives.
He says when the patients recognized him, they called his name, and his presence calmed them down. They have recovered from their injuries and they weren’t critical. But the experience still haunts him. He doesn’t want to treat his family again. That’s a nightmare.
The practice exercise was first held in the underground garage and only a few of the hospital staff had previously worked there.
“If you say it isn’t scary and frightening, you’re fooling yourself,” says Alina Maister, an internal medicine nurse who is part of the training exercise and describes the last month in Israel as one long day.
While touring the facility, she says she exchanged questioning glances with her fellow nurses. “It’s hard to imagine how our jobs would look down here,” she says. “Where is everything? Where will people be? What is the plan?”
During the drill, dozens of staff members begin to practice triage and treatment of pretend-patients played by their coworkers and members of the Israeli military. Challenges become obvious: The acoustics make it difficult to hear the patients, and hospital sections — the ICU, the operating rooms — are in new locations, so the staff need to practice rolling the beds in the right direction.
But Maister says she’s confident they’ll figure out what to do in time. “We know how to handle most situations. It’s one of the strengths of a nurse.
Source: Hospitals in Israel move underground to keep working amid rockets from Lebanon
Rambam’s Garage: A Family Carpet for Dialysis Treatment for a 4-Year-Old Son, Tal Romano
The garage at Rambam has a fully functioning facility for the specialized care of kids with cancer. A father listening to a pop song with his daughter is among the people playing video games at that section of the parking lot.
Tal Romano’s 4-year-old son Hadar is getting dialysis treatment. “It makes me feel better,” says the man sitting next to his son. “It feels very safe down here.”
A nurse makes Hadar laugh while drawing a flower in a pen on his leg. Romano says his only critique of getting treatment underground is that Hadar misses the colorful kid-friendly decor of the upstairs unit.