Sally Ibrahim
The New Arab / April 16, 2025
With only a handful of field hospitals left in operation, most lacking fuel, surgical tools, and anaesthesia, the pressure on staff is mounting.
As Gaza’s health system lingers on the verge of absolute collapse, Al-Shifa Hospital’s staff are struggling against immense odds.
The facility, which was already crippled by 18 months of Israel’s genocidal war, now shoulders the impossible burden of treating hundreds of wounded patients after Israeli warplanes reduced the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital (also known as the Baptist Hospital) to rubble early Sunday.
The Israeli attack, which obliterated the last functional medical facility in northern Gaza, intensified an already dire humanitarian crisis.
The airstrike “completely destroyed” Al-Ahli Hospital’s infrastructure, including its emergency department, intensive care oxygen unit, and surgical wing, the Gaza-based health ministry said in a press statement.
The attack came just minutes after the Israeli army issued a warning to evacuate the building, according to the ministry and local eyewitnesses.
At that time, online footage captured scenes of chaos as doctors, nurses, and relatives scrambled to evacuate patients, many critically injured, before the bombs struck.
“Three patients, including a child, died during the evacuation,” the Gaza-based health ministry said in a press statement on Sunday.
Now, for about 1.4 million Palestinians who remain in Gaza City and the northern parts of the Gaza Strip, only one option remains: Al-Shifa Hospital, and it is barely functioning.
‘The situation is catastrophic’
Inside Al-Shifa, the scenes are bleak. Bloodied patients lie on mattresses or sheets laid on floors. Some are treated under flashlights or phone torches due to constant power outages. Several doctors report performing amputations without full anaesthesia.
Mahmoud Abu Shaaban, a 28-year-old Palestinian man, was rescued from the rubble of his family home in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike earlier this week.
“I waited hours in the corridor for help. All they could give me were painkillers,” Abu Shaaban told The New Arab.
The young man was trapped under the debris for nearly four hours before civil defence teams were able to reach him. His home, where he lived with seven family members, was flattened during a series of strikes that targeted residential areas in the densely populated neighbourhood.
“There was dust everywhere. I could not move. I could hear people screaming, but I did not know if they were alive or buried,” he recalled.
Emergency medical crews, facing severe shortages of fuel, equipment and personnel, transported Abu Shaaban to Al-Shifa hospital, where conditions remain critical due to the ongoing conflict and a healthcare system on the verge of collapse.
“They gave me painkillers and said there were more urgent cases,” he said. “I understand, but the pain is unbearable.”
Health officials in Gaza said dozens of wounded civilians are currently being treated in hallways and tents due to how overcrowded the hospitals are.
Laila Nassar, another wounded woman, was transported to Al-Shifa for treatment after the Israeli army attacked her house located in Tel al-Hawa two days ago.
“I was making tea for my children when the blast threw me across the room,” she told TNA. “I woke up on the floor with glass and concrete all around me. My daughter was crying, and I couldn’t get up.”
Neighbours pulled her from the wreckage and carried her to the roadside, where she waited nearly two hours before an ambulance picked her up.
“They say the hospitals are full. They cleaned my wounds and sent me to this tent here to wait. I do not know what else to do,” she said.
Both Abu Shaaban and Laila are fortunate, but others are not as lucky. With ambulances out of fuel, some wounded individuals are brought in wheelbarrows or carried by relatives. Dead bodies often remain in corridors for hours; there is nowhere to move them.
“The situation is catastrophic,” Mohammed Abu Salmiya told TNA. “People are dying not just from injuries, but from the inability to treat them.”
“The destruction of the Baptist Hospital dealt a devastating blow to Gaza’s already fragile healthcare system,” he said.
“It was the only hospital in the north equipped with a fully operational surgical wing. It had 140 beds. Now it is gone,” he said.
‘Complete collapse’
In contrast, Al-Shifa can offer only 40 beds in its emergency unit and 50 in makeshift tents. “We are losing patients we could have saved under normal conditions,” Abu Salmiya said. “Now, we just cannot treat them.”
“The number of wounded is far beyond what we can manage,” Abeer Abdel Aal, a nurse in Al-Shifa’s emergency department, said to TNA.
“There’s a critical shortage of everything, beds, medications, electricity. We are forced to treat people on the ground or in tents,” she noted.
Israel claimed that the Palestinian factions were using Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital as a “command centre” without providing evidence, a claim similar to others it has made regarding previous strikes on schools, hospitals, and shelters.
International bodies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations, reiterated that attacks on medical facilities may amount to war crimes under international law.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health has condemned the bombing as a direct targeting of civilian infrastructure. “This is not just a health crisis. It is a crime against humanity,” the ministry said.
With only a handful of field hospitals left in operation, most lacking fuel, surgical tools, and anaesthesia, the pressure on staff is mounting.
Marwan al-Hams, the director of Gaza’s field hospitals, told TNA the war has decimated Gaza’s medical capabilities.
“We have lost 99 per cent of our interventional cardiology services and nearly 83 per cent of orthopaedic care,” he said, adding, “These are specialities we desperately need right now.”
“Gaza’s health sector is on the verge of complete collapse. 80 percent of hospitals are either completely or partially out of service, and those still standing are operating without essential supplies,” he added.
“The international community must act now,” he stressed, adding, “We need immediate intervention to restore hospitals, provide medicines, and stop the targeting of our health infrastructure.”
Sally Ibrahim is The New Arab’s correspondent from Gaza
