![The al-Shifa Mystery; A Headquarter or A Pretext for Further Violence? [Part I]](https://al-sarira.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/231114135447-01-al-shifa-hospital-explainer.jpg)
The al-Shifa Hospital, which is located in the northern portion of the encircled region, has been widely reported in the media after the Israeli military started attacking the Gaza Strip following the Hamas offensive on last month.
It’s been in the center of all things for the last five days. That’s while the number of Palestinian fatalities in Gaza has increased to over 11,500, with over half of them being kids, as a result of Israeli strikes.
Snipers have been firing at anybody attempting to exit from a clinical facility to another for days. The process resulted in international outcry as brutal images play out inside the hospital. The Israeli the military, though, doesn’t seem concerned about the humanitarian condition inside the hospital and the media backlash outside.
Al-Shifa’s prominence transcends its medical offerings. The famed medical facility, known as the “House of Healing” in translation, has been called the city’s beating heart.
Al-Shifa has existed since the country was ruled by the Great Britain, and in 1946 it was converted to a hospital. It was once the location of British army headquarters. It has withstood several conflicts as well as decades of occupation by Israel. The hospital has been refused vital fuel and medical resources since early October — and that was prior to Israeli forces storming in and destroying its rapidly depleting medical supplies.
Al-Shifa Catastrophe
Due to lack of other choices, hospital workers were forced to bury scores of patients in a mass grave on the premises. The corpses are still lying throughout the courtyard.
Besides, al-Shifa is regarded as the central hub for the governing bodies of the Gaza administration. Authorities from the health department have conducted news conferences amidst the dead bodies there, and the center has served as the headquarters for the administration’s press office.
Al-Shifa was additionally a favorite site for reporters, many of them are currently stranded inside the campus of the hospital, because it maintained its internet access during periods when Israel shut off the other parts of city. The head of the hospital, together with its physicians and employees, have been giving regular briefings anytime they were available. They often denied Israeli assertions, including as the one made a few days ago that it had let aid to enter the facility.
The hospital has come to represent strength and defiance against an increasingly powerful military that exercises little tolerance in the eyes of the residents of the city.
In solidarity with the people in Gaza, millions of people have taken to the streets after seeing footage of dead newborns and injured kids that were sent live from the al-Shifa hospital worldwide.
