-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Six days after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel ordered the evacuation of 22 hospitals in northern Gaza. In fact, 1.
1 million people were ordered to evacuate the entire north of the enclave within 24 hours. But the evacuation of critically ill patients from nearly two dozen hospitals — a total of around 2,000 people, including newborn babies in incubators, patients on hemodialysis and life support — was not possible, certainly not quickly. The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned the order, calling it a “death sentence” for the sick and injured .
Health care workers made the difficult choice to stay with their patients, even as their families were forcibly displaced to the south. On October 17th, 2023, there was a massive explosion in the parking area outside one of these hospitals — Al-Ahli Arab Hospital (also known as the Baptist Hospital, although it’s now run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem). Having been displaced from their homes as Israel launched its offensive, thousands of residents were sheltering in and around the hospital, in addition to patients, families and staff.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 471 people were killed directly in the explosion and many others wounded, some critically. Speaking as a representative of the ministry, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qadra condemned the incident as an expansion of Israeli attacks on Gaza to target the hospital system, though hospita.
