In Gaza, a severe medical crisis unfolds as 340 kidney failure patients are at an imminent risk at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital amidst the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
The recurring adversities striking the medical services, supplies, and other essential resources have exacerbated the situation, placing many lives in jeopardy.
In an interview with “Sky News Arabia,” the Medical Director of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Iyad Al-Jabri, warned that the lives of the renal patients in the hospital are hanging by a thread.
Al-Jabri highlighted the hospital’s struggle with an unprecedented shortage of specialized medicines for dialysis patients due to the siege imposed on the region since the war onset.
Additionally, the scarcity of fuel is impacting the operations of the dialysis department and other sections, endangering the lives of patients therein.
The hospital is operating beyond its capacity with overcrowded kidney patient wards; patients are now resorting to occupying hallways and remote areas within the hospital, distant from nursing services.
The hospital’s bed capacity has surged to 430 due to the influx of displaced families and civilians seeking shelter, a significant increase from its original capacity of 180 beds.
Both resident and displaced patients in the hospital are enduring a lack of food supplies.
The continuous bombardment surrounding the area has induced panic and fear among the patients, significantly affecting the only hospital serving the central region of the Gaza Strip.
The medical teams are performing around 40 surgeries daily for critical cases. Al-Jabri emphasized the urgent need for kidney failure medications, which are in short supply, and appealed to the World Health Organization via “Sky News Arabia.” He also stressed the importance of opening Egyptian crossings to transfer a significant portion of patients to Egyptian hospitals for urgent medical attention.
Al-Jabri dismissed the Israeli forces’ allegations that Hamas is using hospitals as operational bases in its war against Israel, calling these statements “baseless false claims.”
He reiterated that the utilization of hospitals for military actions during war is neither religiously nor legally permissible, pointing out that such rumors are misleading attempts to pave the way for hospital bombardments.
It’s noteworthy that Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed on Friday that Hamas’s main operational base is located underneath Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
He revealed to the international media correspondents that Hamas has several underground complexes beneath Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital, utilized by the movement’s leaders to orchestrate attacks against Israel.
Israel has intelligence information regarding several tunnels leading to the underground base from outside the hospital, eliminating the need for Hamas officials to enter the hospital to access it. Hagari accused Hamas of using the hospital, which houses 1,500 beds and employs around 4,000 staff, as a shield