Latest news with #hospital crisis
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Shot in the head, as if executed': four days of violence end with hundreds dead in southern Syria
Bahaa* had no choice but to keep on working as patient after patient came through the doors of the Sweida National hospital in southern Syria. Almost all bore similar injuries: gunshot wounds and bodies shredded by shrapnel from nearby exploding artillery. 'There were hundreds of wounded, no less than 200 bodies in the hospital. Many of them shot in the head, as if executed,' said Bahaa, a surgeon speaking of the events of this week in Sweida under a pseudonym for fear of retribution. Videos filmed inside the hospital showed hallways lined with corpses, rooms stacked with body bags and corpses piled up outside. A second doctor from the intensive care unit said bodies had to be placed outside the morgue for lack of space. The casualties, both civilian and military, were some of at least 516 civilians and fighters killed in four days of clashes in the Druze-majority province, according to figures given by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). At least 86 of those killed were field executions of Druze civilians by government fighters or allied militias, as well as three Bedouin civilians killed by Druze fighters, SOHR said. The fighting, begun by a local dispute between Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters, quickly escalated and prompted Syrian government forces to intervene. Druze fighters resisted their entry into the province and clashes began with Syrian government forces. Residents described four days of terror as fighting quickly took on a sectarian flavour – the violence was the most serious threat to Syria's stability since March, when 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians were killed after a failed attack on government forces. Syria's president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has pledged to protect the country's minorities since the toppling of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December. He now leads a country riven by sectarian divisions after 14 years of civil war, without the resources to engage in the transitional justice needed to heal it. The president, a former al-Qaida leader turned statesman, has been welcomed on to the international stage but there are deep misgivings about him among Syria's minorities back home. As the Syrian military withdrew from the city on Wednesday, people began to emerge from their houses and take stock of their losses. At least 15 unarmed people were killed at a reception hall belonging to the prominent Radwan family in Sweida city on Tuesday, three members of the family told the Guardian. SOHR also reported the killings, though put the number of dead at 12. 'They were sitting there drinking coffee when gunmen came in and just started shooting. There are no weapons allowed in the hall, it's not like it's a military base,' said Maan Radwan, a 46-year-old London resident whose relatives were killed in the shooting. Sweida residents blamed government-affiliated forces for the killings but witnesses said it was impossible to distinguish between state security forces and rogue militias. The Guardian could not independently verify who was responsible for the killings. An eyewitness said the attackers were wearing army fatigues but could not tell if they were from government-affiliated forces or a militia. 'It's impossible to tell who is killing us,' a 52-year-old teacher and relative of the Radwan family in Sweida told the Guardian by phone. Video of the aftermath of the shooting showed unarmed men strewn across a room lying in pools of blood. Family members said men in army fatigues prevented ambulances from reaching the reception hall, which they thought was meant to ensure the wounded died from blood loss. Bahaa received the bodies of those killed in the Radwan shooting at the hospital, some of whom he knew personally, and said that their bodies bore close-range gunshot wounds. He would recognise many more of the corpses that would later come through the hospital doors. Conditions in the hospital itself became desperate as fighters besieged the facility. Doctors hid in the hallways as bullets and artillery flew by, and the hospital itself was hit at least once. They began to ration medicine and other basic supplies. 'We were trying to limit each wounded person to 2 or 3CCs of Tramadol and we would dilute it so it would last for everyone,' the doctor from the intensive care unit said. Al-Sharaa gave a speech on Thursday condemning the abuses against civilians and said there would be accountability. The Syrian defence ministry also said it was 'adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents'. 'We are determined to hold accountable anyone who wronged or harmed our Druze brethren. They are under the protection and responsibility of the state, and the law and justice guarantee the rights of all without exception,' the Syrian president said. On their private social media seen by the Guardian, two government forces members posted sectarian hate speech against Druze. One posted a video of him and two other soldiers driving through Sweida laughing as he said: 'We are on our way to distribute aid,' while brandishing a machete to the camera. He filmed himself inside a house in Sweida ripping a picture of Druze spiritual leaders off a wall and trampling it with his boots. 'If God grants you victory, none can defeat you … On behalf of the tribes, oh Druze and Alawites, we are coming for you with sectarianism,' he continued. Another fighter posted a video of him driving through the town of Sahwa Blata in Sweida province, pausing to gloat over two dead bodies on the sidewalk as he filmed. 'These are your dogs, al-Hijri. Anyone who stands against the state this is what will happen to them,' he said, referring to the most staunchly anti-government of the three Druze spiritual leaders, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri. Yousef* recognised the two men in the video as his cousin and his cousin's son. He had no idea prior that they were dead. 'They called me at 7am that morning and most of the people had fled the village. They didn't know what to do, and they didn't have any guns at all,' said Yousef, a 25-year-old civil engineer in Sweida. Despite the ceasefire on Wednesday, intermittent violence seemed to continue. Rumours of another Bedouin attack on Sweida prompted a mass exodus of residents on Thursday. Yousef sent a video of him interviewing people as they fled. One had two body bags in the bed of his pickup truck. Unzipping the one of the body bags, Yousef showed the camera the body of a woman, her throat slit. The cycle of tit-for-tat violence which carried sectarian overtones threatens the unity of the new Syrian state, which authorities in Damascus were desperately trying to hold together. Mistrust between the Druze and the new authorities, and vice versa, has fallen to an all time low. Syrian state media reported on Thursday that there were now attacks on the small Bedouin communities in Sweida, prompting further displacement and what it called massacres by 'outlaw groups'. Social media was flooded by another round of images of dead civilians, this time, they claimed, it was the Druze attacking the Bedouins. The Guardian could not independently verify the veracity of those videos. 'So many of those killed were anti-Assad from the beginning. All of these killings after 14 years of war. What's the point?' said Bahaa. (Names with an asterisk have been changed)
Japan Times
11-07-2025
- Health
- Japan Times
Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals
Doctors at Gaza's largest hospital say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in single incubators as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign. Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyze hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummeled during 21 months of war. An Israeli military official said around 160,000 liters of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said. "We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director. "Premature babies are now in a very critical condition." The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," said Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health. Palestinian newborns share an incubator at Al-Helou hospital due to fuel crisis, according to medics, amid the Israeli military offensive, in Gaza City on Thursday. | REUTERS The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard," he said. The Israeli military official said such depictions were creating "a false narrative." U.N. bodies working in Gaza decide how to distribute fuel and he did not know if fuel had reached Al Shifa yet, he said. Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than 2 million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centers underneath them, which Hamas denies. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees," with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian who was killed in an overnight Israeli strike on a house, according to medics, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday. | REUTERS Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the U.N. agency. Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. Abu Selmia said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia. "Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil," Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become "a graveyard for those inside." Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 liters of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 liters, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it while introducing a U.S. and Israeli-backed scheme that largely bypasses the U.N. system. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies. "You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility," said James Elder, a spokesperson for U.N. children's agency UNICEF, recently returned from Gaza. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
Al Arabiya
10-07-2025
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as Israel intensifies campaign
At Gaza's largest hospital, doctors say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in a single incubator as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign. Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyze hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummeled during 21 months of war. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said. 'We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator,' said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director. 'Premature babies are now in a very critical condition.' The threat comes from 'neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel,' Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters. The shortage is 'depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard,' he said. Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than 2 million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before Israel launched its war on October 7, 2023. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Palestinian militant group Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centers underneath them, which Hamas, doctors, and several international organizations – including the United Nations – deny. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being 'on its knees', with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency. Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of 'trickle-feeding' fuel to Gaza's hospitals. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. Oxygen risk Abu Selmia said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia. 'Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil,' Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become 'a graveyard for those inside'. Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 liters of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 liters, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies. 'You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility,' said James Elder, a spokesperson for UN children's agency UNICEF, recently returned from Gaza. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's war on the territory has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
Asharq Al-Awsat
10-07-2025
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Gaza Doctors Cram Babies into Incubators as Fuel Shortage Threatens Hospitals
At Gaza's largest hospital, doctors say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in a single incubator as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign. Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyze hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummeled during 21 months of war. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said. "We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director. "Premature babies are now in a very critical condition." The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters. The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard," he said. Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than 2 million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas erupted. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centers underneath them, which Hamas denies. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees", with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency. Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. OXYGEN RISK Abu Selmia said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia. "Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil," Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become "a graveyard for those inside". Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 liters of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 liters, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies. "You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility," said James Elder, a spokesperson for UN children's agency UNICEF, recently returned from Gaza. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
Arab News
10-07-2025
- Health
- Arab News
Gaza doctors cram babies into incubators as fuel shortage threatens hospitals
GAZA: At Gaza's largest hospital, doctors say crippling fuel shortages have led them to put several premature babies in a single incubator as they struggle to keep the newborns alive while Israel presses on with its military campaign. Overwhelmed medics say the dwindling fuel supplies threaten to plunge them into darkness and paralyze hospitals and clinics in the Palestinian territory, where health services have been pummelled during 21 months of war. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, patients at Al Shifa medical center in Gaza City faced imminent danger, doctors there said. 'We are forced to place four, five, or sometimes three premature babies in one incubator,' said Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa's director. 'Premature babies are now in a very critical condition.' The threat comes from 'neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel,' Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters. The shortage is 'depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard,' he said. Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of more than 2 million, was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centers underneath them, which Hamas denies. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being 'on its knees,' with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency. Abu Selmia warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and accused Israel of 'trickle-feeding' fuel to Gaza's hospitals. COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. OXYGEN RISK Abu Selmia said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. Before the war, there were 110 incubators in northern Gaza compared to about 40 now, said Abu Selmia. 'Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil,' Abu Selmia said, adding that the hospital could become 'a graveyard for those inside.' Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 liters of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 liters, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. Earlier this year, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza for nearly three months, before partly lifting it. Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, something Hamas denies. 'You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the pain killers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility,' said James Elder, a spokesperson for UN children's agency UNICEF, recently returned from Gaza. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
