Italian doctor details horrific Israeli crimes in Gaza's al-Shifa

By Al Mayadeen English
1 Apr 2024 18:26
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Dr. Paola Manduca, on behalf of the Italian Healthcare network for Gaza, details the crimes of the Israeli military in Gaza, calling for immediate international action.

Palestinians inspect the damage in the area around Gaza's Al-Shifa Medical Complex after the Israeli occupation forces withdrew, from the Gaza Strip, Palestine, on April 1, 2024. (AFP)

Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City witnessed a collection of the Israeli occupation's most brutal war crimes, a letter released by Dr. Paola Manduca, of the New Weapons Research Group organization, on behalf of the Italian Healthcare network for Gaza, detailed.

Dr. Mancuda received a message from the Deputy Minister of Health in Gaza, Dr. Yousif Abu al-Reech, detailing the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in Al-Shifa Hospital from the moment of the invasion until March 31, 2024, as per the letter.

The Deputy Minister explained that the Israeli occupation had imposed a 14-day siege on the medical complex, incarcerating 107 patients, most of whom are in critical condition, and 60 medical staff members in an old two-story Health Resources building. As reported by the staff, the building is not equipped with ventilation and medical equipment, nor does it have the necessary sanitary conditions, water, and food.

This has led to white flies hatching out of septic wounds of some patients, Dr. al-Reech added. Moreover, medical staff ran out of gloves and were forced to use plastic bags when treating patients, which eventually also ran out.

"In addition, they reported the lack of elderly diapers, especially that 30 patients are bed-ridden and use diapers and are in intensive need of medical care and nursing that the limited number of staff is incapable of providing," the letter read.

Humiliating Al-Shifa's staff representative and starving patients

Dr. al-Reech explained that the Israeli occupation's military was starving the besieged patients, as no food or drinkable water was provided for days on end.

Additionally, the Israeli occupation denuded Al-Shifa Hospital's staff representative when he attempted to convey the needs of medical staff and patients to military commanders.

"Prior to every negotiation attempt, soldiers undress him and leave him semi-naked for 3 hours at least before meeting the concerned officer with 'we will look into the matter and come back to you' response, but they never did," Dr. al-Reech explained.

Mass executions and detainments of Palestinians

In her own commentary on the situation, Dr. Manduca took note of the mass field executions of unarmed people in Al-Shifa and its vicinity. As Dr. al-Reech mentioned in his letter, patients' companions were either executed, detained, or displaced to the south of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Manduca said that information provided by the Ministry of Health in Gaza indicated that around 400 Palestinians were executed in Al-Shifa. At the same time, another 800 were detained and taken to Israeli jails.

"Israel" also forcibly displaced thousands of Palestinians southward under the threat of gunfire, killing several on a designated "safe path".

Dr. Manduca calls on citizens of countries complicit in Israeli crimes to take action

"What do we, simple citizens of a country involved and complicit, do to change all this? The strength is in each of us and in the pressure that we will be able to put on our government to stop being an accomplice to genocide and outside international law," Dr. Mancuda said, addressing citizens of states aiding "Israel's" genocide in the Gaza Strip.

"The problem of saving Palestine is not just a Palestinian problem. And there's no time to do it," she emphasized.

Dr. Mancuda called on all states to re-evaluate military and economic agreements with "Israel", calling on all states to decide where they stand in this genocide.

"The task of states, what is required of them, is to sanction Israel, severing economic, military and research agreements," she stated.

"Not doing so makes them complicit in an ongoing genocide," Dr. Mancuda said, adding that "it would be very good for those who invest in Israel to suspend these investments."

Dr. Mancuda was also highly critical of the United States for its continued support of "Israel" despite the ongoing massacre. She pointed to the US sending supplies of heavy weapons amid alleged concerns about humanitarian aid, saying that it is contradictory. Dr. Mancuda also lambasted the Biden administration for working on an "inefficient" temporary pier in the Gaza Strip, instead of providing aid to Palestinians via traditional land routes.

Earlier today, Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza reported that Israeli occupation forces have completely withdrawn from the vicinity of the al-Shifa Medical Complex toward the southwest of Gaza City.

He pointed out that scores of martyrs' bodies were found in the vicinity of the hospital after the withdrawal of the occupation forces.

"Dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, have been recovered from in and around the Al-Shifa medical complex," the Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement.

The Israeli occupation military "withdrew from the Al-Shifa medical complex after burning down the complex buildings and putting it completely out of service," it said.

"The scale of the destruction inside the complex and the buildings around it is very large."

In a harrowing revelation, Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, disclosed that around 300 decomposing bodies with signs of torture were scattered in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Complex and its surrounding areas following the withdrawal of occupation forces after a two-week siege.

Al-Shifa Hospital is the largest medical complex and central hospital in the Gaza Strip. Now? it’s hard to even recognise that this was once a hospital!! pic.twitter.com/8I4QNdRz3J
— بلستيا (@byPlestia) April 1, 2024

Basal confirmed that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) had executed civilians, whose bodies were found handcuffed at Al-Shifa hospital. Furthermore, he detailed that the IOF had set fire to wards within the hospital, leaving behind a mass trail of devastation as they destroyed all medical equipment and supplies.