“The smell of death is everywhere”: the scene in Gaza’s largest hospital after the Israeli attack

Following Israeli attacks on Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, “the smell of death is everywhere.” The description was written by medical workers who report the chaos in which the hospital ward is located.

Nurse Maha Sweilem remembers the day the Israeli army surrounded Al Shifa Hospital. “Through loudspeakers, the Israeli army ordered everyone to surrender. They started shooting at all the entrances, not allowing anyone to move. I spent four days there with my two young daughters and did not eat or drink. They were crying from hunger. When they arrested my husband, he didn’t eat for three days,” she says. Al Jazeera.

Motasem Salah, director of the Gaza Emergency Operations Center, talks about the unbearable situation
“The smell of death is everywhere,” he said.

For two weeks, the hospital was the scene of fierce fighting, which did not affect the main buildings of the complex, including wards and operating rooms. Israel has blamed Hamas and Islamic Jihad, saying they used the hospital as a base, and says it killed more than 200 terrorists and detained more than 900 suspects in the operation, and confiscated large quantities of weapons, ammunition and documents. . Hamas says more than 400 people, including doctors, were killed during the invasion.