'Get Out You Animals - Get Out You Dogs!': Israeli soldiers taunt Palestinians to evacuate Nasser Hospital

Mohamed Hatem , Wednesday 14 Feb 2024

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza reported that many staff, wounded patients and displaced people in Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis have been forced to evacuate the premises but some are still inside sending pleas for help to the world amid a mad Israeli siege and bombardment campaign.

Gaza
Palestinians evacuating Nasser - Snapshot from video on social media

 

For weeks, Nurses and doctors have been sending urgent pleas for help from within the medical facility that has been under siege and bombardment for weeks.

A nurse told AFP that Israeli snipers were killing people, sewage had flooded the emergency room, and drinking water had run out.

"It was a black night, with strikes and explosions all night," Mohamed Al-Astal, a nurse in the emergency department, told AFP.

The Israeli army has besieged and bombarded the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which has been treating hundreds of wounded patients and sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians since December.

 

 

Death by snipers!
 

For weeks, Israeli snipers picked up one Palestinian after another, including women and children, in the vicinity of Nasser.

On Tuesday, a gruesome video depicted the body of a Palestinian child, who wandered outside the hospital building,  lying dead in front of the Nasser Medical Complex after a sniper shot him dead.

 

 

'Animals and dogs!'
 

The Israeli army has been sending humiliating and threatening messages to people inside the hospital to leave or else.

In the last 48 hours, videos circulating on social media depicted Israeli soldiers lobbing dehumanizing slurs via loudspeakers at Palestinians trapped inside Nasser.

(Get Out You Bunch of Animals, Get Out Dogs!) as snipers pick off anyone who dares to leave or enter the medical facility.

 

 

Another video which circulated on social media depicted one of the many sinister acts of impunity and vengeance committed by the Israeli soldiers against the unarmed civilian population.

The soldiers sent a Palestinian man they had detained to deliver an order of evacuation to the people inside the hospital.

After the man returned with a NO answer from staff and civilians, the Israeli soldiers executed him at point blank with three bullets.

 

 

No food - No water!
 

There is no food or drinking water left, Al-Astal, 39, told AFP on Wednesday.

"At night, tanks opened heavy fire on the hospital, and snipers on the roofs of buildings surrounding Nasser Hospital opened fire and killed three displaced people," he added.

Catastrophe!
 

Dozens of young men and some women were detained in and around Nasser on Tuesday by Israeli troops, who also "forced the displaced people to leave under gunfire."

Israel has destroyed hospital medical supplies warehouses throughout the strip, according to medical workers.

The situation at Nasser is "catastrophic," and staff are unable to move bodies to the mortuary because of the risks involved, added the ministry.

"Healthcare workers, patients, and companions in the complex are in grave danger," the ministry said and reported that multiple people had been shot.

On Wednesday, after braving weeks under a deadly siege and bombardment, many wounded people and displaced civilians started to evacuate the facility - without a safe destination.

Indeed, in recent days, Israel has intensified bombing on Rafah and threatened to launch a ground invasion of the city that has been sought by more than 1.2 million Palestinians as a haven from Israeli bombing elsewhere in the strip.

 

 

WHO warns!
 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said several hospitals in central and southern Gaza are facing a dire situation.

 Rik Peeperkorn, WHO's envoy for the Palestinian territories, described Nasser as "a key hospital for all of Gaza."

"We cannot lose that hospital... this hospital is critically important," Peeperkorn told journalists.

The United Nations said a week ago there are no fully functioning hospitals left in Gaza, with only 13 out of 36 across the territory working at some capacity.

Hospitals have been overwhelmed because they had to treat thousands wounded in bombardment and accommodate tens of thousands more seeking shelter from bombardment.

Since 7 October, Israeli forces have raided and ransacked various hospitals everywhere in the Gaza Strip, sending major hospitals such as Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City out of commission.

Nurse Astal told AFP  he did not want to leave the hospital despite the persistent peril.

"We serve the wounded and the sick; this is my duty -- and I won't give up even if they kill us."

 

 

*Ezzat Sameh contributed to this report

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