7,000 displaced people, patients, medical staff at Al-Shifa hospital 'fighting death,' says Gaza government

Over 7,000 displaced people, patients, and medical staff at Al-Shifa Hospital are "fighting death due to a lack of water and food" caused by the Israeli military blockade, to the Gaza media office reported on Thursday.

According to a statement released on Telegram, the office emphasized the critical situation, stating that there is “no food, water, or milk for infants at Al-Shifa Hospital.”
“We may lose a number of malnourished children at the hospital due to the power outage, leaving them without incubators,” it said.
The media office highlighted “the dire conditions at Al-Shifa Hospital, which houses 650 patients and approximately 7,000 displaced individuals. Medical teams, patients, and displaced individuals are struggling for survival due to the absence of life's essentials.”
The statement pointed out that “Israeli forces have destroyed all vehicles in the hospital compound and refuse to allow medical staff or patients to leave.”
The Gaza media office “appealed for urgent international intervention to rescue those present in the compound.”
It reported that "the Israeli army conducted search and inspection operations inside Al-Shifa Hospital, transferring the bodies of martyrs to an unknown location. The occupying forces have converted the facility into a military barracks."
The statement called for “international pressure to liberate Al-Shifa compound from the Israeli army, remove its soldiers and tanks, and reject the Israeli narrative of weapons being present in the hospital, describing it as false.”
It said, “Al-Shifa and hospitals in Gaza are humanitarian institutions, and they will not allow them to be used as a stage for military operations.”
On Thursday evening, the Israeli army surrounded Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, the last operating health facility in Gaza, said the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
For days, Israeli attacks and blockade have targeted all hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, citing the "presence of militant headquarters," a claim Hamas and Palestinian officials in Gaza have repeatedly denied.