ActionAid Ireland horrified by attacks on last functioning hospital in northern Gaza which have left 160 medical staff and patients trapped

ActionAid Ireland has expressed its horror at fresh attacks by Israeli military on its partner hospital in northern Gaza, Al-Awda, which have left 160 medical staff and patients trapped inside.

The hospital’s surgery department, water and fuel tanks and outpatient buildings were hit in the attack. A warehouse housing medical supplies was also hit, sparking a huge fire which has yet to be contained due to firefighters reportedly being prevented from reaching the site.

ActionAid Ireland CEO, Karol Balfe, said today:

“The situation is incredibly dangerous, with no one able to enter or leave the facility. The medical staff trapped inside are desperately trying to save lives under the non-stop sound of quadcopters firing overhead. This is adding to an already perilous situation with food, fuel and medical supplies running low due to the 11 weeks of total blockade.”
Ms Balfe said: “These unconscionable attacks are yet another example of the Israeli army’s systematic targeting of healthcare facilities across the Gaza strip, in flagrant breach of international humanitarian law. Multiple hospitals have been attacked in the last week alone. Gaza’s health system is being destroyed before the world’s eyes. Al-Awda hospital is the last partially functioning hospital left in northern Gaza: if it is forced out of service, starving and injured people, as well as pregnant women in need of maternity care, will have nowhere left to turn.“

Ms Balfe added: “The world cannot allow these attacks to continue with impunity. The time for words of condemnation is long gone: states must take tangible action to pressure the Israeli authorities to end the brutal war in Gaza permanently and allow aid to enter at scale. That includes by halting all arms exports to the Israeli government and imposing sanctions on senior Israeli government officials linked to any breaches of international humanitarian law.” 

In a video message ActionAid’s Emergency Response Manager in Gaza, Alaa Abu Samra, said the past week has been one of the hardest during this war time.

“Unfortunately, we have lost some of our beloved family members and friends. The fear, the destruction, the pain is everywhere in Gaza. The people are in real need for your support and your solidarity to stop this war.”

He added: “We want to live in peace, a peace that will save our lives and restore our humanity.”

In another emotional video testimony, Tasneem Aliwini, a humanitarian aid worker in Gaza who works with ActionAid partner, the Palestinian NGOs Network, told how she witnessed a father struggling to provide for his child in a camp, highlighting the severe impact of closed border crossings into the Gaza Strip.

She said: “I heard the Father speaking to his child saying: My dear son, I don’t know what else I can do. I truly have nothing. I can’t even afford a bag of flour, not even a loaf of bread.”

“These words have stayed with me. I can’t stop thinking about how many nights that child must have gone to bed hungry.”

She said people are unable to afford even a single meal and are resorting to spoiled, expensive vegetables. “Nutritious food like fruits, meat, and dairy has been unavailable for over three months. The closure of the crossings into Gaza strip has turned a catastrophic situation into something unparalleled, something no human being should have to live.”

“Sometimes I wonder, how long will the world keep watching, and how much more starvation and suffering does the world need to say before this massacre ends? How many more of us have to die before the world cares? And does the humanitarian law allow people to die from hunger?”