Al-Shifa Hospital staff burying bodies in mass grave at Gaza City complex

Hundreds of patients remain trapped amid battles between Hamas and Israeli forces.
Palestinians call for a ceasefire to allow patients and newborns to leave Gaza’s largest hospital.
The fuel crisis prevents more aid from rolling into the territory.
A well-known doctor from Al-Shifa Hospital was killed in a reported airstrike.
Palestinians trapped inside Gaza’s biggest hospital were digging a mass grave on Tuesday to bury patients who died under Israeli encirclement and said no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators.
Israeli forces have surrounded Al-Shifa Hospital, which they say sits atop an underground headquarters of Hamas militants.
Hamas, Gaza’s ruling Islamist group, denies fighters are present and says 650 patients and 5,000 to 7,000 other displaced civilians remain trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from snipers and drones. It says 40 patients have died in recent days, including three premature babies whose incubators were shut down when power went out. Health officials in Gaza warned the only way to save three dozen newborns trapped there would be to call a ceasefire and transport them out of the besieged territory.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson, reached by telephone inside the hospital compound, said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside. Other reports said there were about 150 bodies.
“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 [International Committee of the Red Cross], but we have no other option,” he told Reuters. ”The men are digging right now as we speak.” One of the remaining doctors at the hospital who regularly updated journalists on the worsening conditions inside was killed in a reported airstrike on the weekend, his sister said Tuesday. She said Dr. Hammam Alloh and three of their relatives died in a home that was a 10-minute walk from the hospital. Israel announced on Tuesday that it was offering portable, battery-powered incubators so the babies could be moved. But Qidra said that so far no arrangements had been established to carry out any such evacuation.
Source: cbc.ca/news