An urgent call to save the staff and patients of Gaza’s al-Awda Hospital
doctor checks on a child in Al-Awda Hopsital amid a blackout in February 2024
Craig Redmond, CEO at Relief International, reports in Al Jazeera on 27 October 2024:
As I write, thousands of people in northern Gaza are on the move, attempting to escape the worst nightmare imaginable. Forced from their homes and temporary shelters, they are leaving behind everything they have known. The landscape of devastation is reminiscent of some of the worst conflicts in recent memory.
Northern Gaza, which is one-fourth of Gaza’s territory, has been under siege for 23 days. The nearly 400,000 residents who had remained there after a year of war face inhumane conditions as food, water and medicines have run out and aid is not reaching them. More than 800 people have been killed in three weeks.
The situation in Jabalia refugee camp, which has been the focus of the ongoing military assault, is particularly dire. Al-Awda Hospital, which is supported by Relief International, is the only partially functional medical centre in the area.
The facility has been struck three times in three weeks. Its upper floors and water system have been destroyed, along with its warehouse and pharmacy where critical medicine was stored. Last week, an ambulance carrying patients was hit, killing a woman who had just given birth, as well as her companion.
For the past five days, the facility has been encircled by armed forces, meaning neither civilians nor staff can get in or out. Inside, a total 163 people are trapped, including 24 patients in critical care, 31 others with their companions, and seven children. The surrounding area is inaccessible, and transportation is impossible without a ceasefire. I am extremely worried that the hospital will soon be stormed as we have seen with other health facilities in the past 24 hours.