Palestinians trapped inside Gaza’s biggest hospital are digging a mass grave to bury patients who died under Israeli encirclement, and say there is no plan in place to evacuate babies.
Israeli forces have surrounded Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which they say sits atop an underground headquarters of Hamas. The group denies the claim.
According to officials, 650 patients and 5,000-7,000 other displaced civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from snipers and drones. In recent days, 40 patients have died, including three premature babies whose incubators were shut down when power went out.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza’s health ministry spokesman, reached by telephone inside the hospital compound, said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out.
“We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don’t have any cover or protection from the ICRC, but we have no other options the corpses of the martyrs began to decompose,” he told Reuters.
