When burning hospitals are no longer news
A fire burns as seen through a window of Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza on 18 December 2024
Ghada Ageel writes in Al Jazeera on 28 Dec 2024:
This morning, I opened social media to search for Gaza news. I had to scroll for a while through my newsfeed before seeing the first mention of my homeland.
Yet, the news we receive from Gaza through friends, family and social media is no less grim than it was a year ago. Its people continue to cry out for help, hoping the world would hear them.
For three months, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, sent appeals for help to the world, as the Israeli army besieged the hospital, cut off supplies, bombarded it, slaughtered people in its vicinity and injured some of the medical staff and patients inside.
In a video appeal posted on December 12, Dr Abu Safia lamented: “We are now without any capacity and providing a low-level service. I hope that there are listening ears. We hope that there is a living conscience that hears our plea and facilitates a humanitarian corridor to the hospital so that Kamal Adwan Hospital continues its work to provide services.”
But his cries for help fell on deaf ears. The day after Christmas, Israeli bombardment killed a woman at the hospital’s front gate and five medical workers: Dr Ahmed Samour, a paediatrician; Esraa Abu Zaidah, a laboratory technician; Abdul Majid Abu al-Eish and Maher al-Ajrami, paramedics; and Fares al-Houdali, a maintenance technician. Shrapnel shattered the skull of nurse Hassan Dabous inside the hospital, putting his life in danger.