The ministry had warned earlier that “electrical generators stopped and the power was completely cut off” from the medical center, adding that it “fears the death of six patients in intensive care and three in the children’s nursery.”
At least four patients died at the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, due to a power outage after the Israeli army stormed the facility, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Friday.
“A fourth patient at Nasser Medical Complex was killed as a result of the cessation of electrical generators and the cessation of oxygen machines at dawn Friday,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said earlier on Friday that “three patients died in intensive care as a result of the power outage and the cessation of oxygen machines in the Nasser Medical Complex.”
It also added that “two women gave birth in abhorrent and inhumane conditions, without electricity, water, food, or heating” in the hospital.
The ministry had warned earlier that “electrical generators stopped and the power was completely cut off” from the medical center, adding that it “fears the death of six patients in intensive care and three in the children’s nursery.”
The ministry held “the Israeli occupation responsible for the lives of patients and staff, considering that the complex is now under its full control.”
It also appealed to “all international institutions to intervene to save patients and staff before it is too late.”
‘Justifying War Crimes’
Hamas said on Thursday that Israel’s allegations regarding the arrest of Palestinian fighters in Khan Yunis hospitals are an attempt to “justify a war crime” committed against the health system in the war-torn enclave.
“The claims of the spokesman for the terrorist occupation army, that the Resistance (forces) used the Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, for military purposes, and his claim that his fascist army arrested members of the resistance (forces) there, is a new episode in the series of lies that he spreads to justify the war crime and the flagrant violations against hospitals and the health sector in the Gaza Strip,” the Palestinian group said in a statement.
Israeli occupation forces stormed the Nasser Medical Complex, the largest functioning hospital in the enclave, after laying siege to the facility for days.
The Israeli army said they “apprehended a number of suspects” in the hospital, adding that the operation was ongoing.
Hamas stressed it has “repeatedly stressed that the policy of the Palestinian Resistance was, and still is, to isolate public institutions, civilians, and the health sector from any military activities.”
The movement said it has “called, on more than one occasion, on the UN and the relevant organizations, for an international committee to enter to inspect hospitals and determine the falsehood of the occupation’s narrative,” noting that the demand “received no response.”
It renewed its call on “the international community and the UN to fulfill their legal and humanitarian responsibilities, and take the necessary measures to prevent the Nazi entity from destroying the remaining hospitals and medical points.”
Ongoing Genocide
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 28,775 Palestinians have been killed, and 68,552 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 8,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all of the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(PC, AA)