Ghassan Abu-Sittah: Israeli attacks on Gaza hosptials are 'monstrous'

Israel's attacks on hospitals during its air and ground onslaught on Gaza have been "monstrous", British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah has told The New Arab from one of the Palestinian territory's last functioning healthcare facilities.

Abu-Sittah spoke The New Arab from Gaza City's Al-Ahli hospital, otherwise known as the Baptist hospital - the site of an Israeli strike on 17 October that killed almost 500 people.

Israel has since struck hospitals multiple times, including the Al-Mahdi Maternity Hospital in the city on Saturday night that led to the deaths of two doctors and the injury of several people who had been taking shelter at the facility.

With more than 11,000 people killed and tens of thousands of people injured in Israel's war on Gaza, hospitals had been overflowing with patients in desperate need of care.

Abu-Sittah - who was at the Al-Ahli hospital at the time of the 17 October strike - had been moving between facilities in order to offer his expertise.

But most hospitals in Gaza have had to shut due to lack of fuel needed for electricity or because of destruction caused by airstrikes.

"I’m in the Baptist hospital right now, it’s the only functional hospital in the whole of Gaza," Abu-Sittah told The New Arab.

"There is no blood. Our wounded are dying after surgery because we can’t transfuse them. We are only three surgeons in two rooms trying to treat more than 200 injured."

Just a few weeks ago, Israel would vehemently deny that it was carrying out strikes on hospitals.

But with little repercussion from the international community for such attacks, it has since brazenly targeted hospitals. On Saturday, its tanks surrounded the Al-Shifa hospital where tens of thousands of people had been taking shelter.

"Our colleagues in Al-Shifa Hospital told us they were attacked," Abu-Sittah said.

Hospitals in the north and west of Gaza City have been particularly vulnerable in recent days as Israeli forces attempt to advance into those areas.

Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces "are not evacuating people from hospitals".

"They are forcibly evicting the wounded onto the streets, leaving them to face inevitable death," the minister reportedly said.

Displaced Gazans inside the hospital have appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene for their evacuation and the rescue of the wounded.