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Ongoing bombing kills children in Gaza and threatens hospital

by Jane Still

Innocent people, including children, are once again among those who have been killed during ongoing air strikes against Gaza by Israel. At least two children are amongst an estimated nineteen people killed when Israel retaliated against unidentified rocket attacks over the last month. Scores more people were injured.

Ms Samira Farah, assistant to the Director of Gaza’s Al Ahli Hospital, said that while they had only treated a few casualties so far, the hospital would struggle to cope with an extended emergency. Staff were working around the clock, she said.

“We try to make sure we have enough supplies, and fuel for generators,” she said, but given the blockade of Gaza, this is an expensive and unreliable business. Under normal circumstances, she said, they’d have enough supplies for a month. “But [not] if the emergency gets much worse. It is a very unstable situation.”

While it was not established precisely who had fired the rockets into Israel which precipitated this latest round of bombings, Anglicord CEO Misha Coleman, who recently visited Palestine with a delegation of Australian parliamentarians, expressed dismay at the easy assumption that it was from militants within Gaza.

“The Israeli military acted swiftly, brutally, and indiscriminately, based on that assumption,” she said.

Samirah Farah said that the situation in Gaza was currently very frightening, as the bombing seemed to have no pattern, and the Israeli air strikes seemed to be targeting people in their homes and in their vehicles, regardless of the lives around them which might be also taken.

“Cars, houses, women and children, bombing the houses, it doesn’t seem to matter who will be injured,” she said. “It is very scary. You don’t know if you are driving behind a car or living next door to someone who is wanted.”

Ms Farah says that regardless of who fired the rockets “it is not a fair fight”. “They are bombing and killing people. The rockets [fired at them] are only digging holes in the floor.”

Anglicord has been working with Al Ahli Arab Hospital for over twenty years, to respond to the health and humanitarian needs of Gaza communities. Hospital services include general surgical and medical care, out and in patient care as well as diagnostic, rehabilitation services, prevention and skills development.

According to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) around 325,000 people are believed to be living in abject poverty, unable to meet their daily food needs.

While an emergency appeal has not yet been launched for the hospital, you can support their work by learning more here.