The disastrous situation facing hospitals and health workers in Gaza continues to deteriorate. Mohammed Al Ahel, a laboratory technician who had been working for the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for two years, died on the night of November 7 in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, after a bombing attack caused the building where he lived to collapse. Since the start of the war on October 7, 175 healthcare professionals and 34 civil defense workers have been killed, according to Mai Al-Kaila, health minister of the Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah, in the West Bank. Sixteen of the Gaza Strip's 35 hospitals and 51 of its 72 health centers have ceased operations due to bombings or lack of fuel.

At the heart of the war, the pressure has been mounting on the overcrowded, depleted hospitals in the territory's north, while the Israeli army has ordered civilians to flee towards the south of the Palestinian enclave. Contacted by telephone, several practitioners and medical staff spoke of their increasingly complicated working conditions: According to local authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, more than 20,000 people have been injured and admitted to their facilities. Before the war, local hospitals had around 3,500 beds, including 2,000 in the north of Gaza.

"Between the hospitals that are forced to shut down because of the bombings or the lack of medicine or of electricity, the number of wounded is constantly rising. What's happening is an absolute crime. Israel is ensuring that those who are not killed in the attacks also die because of malfunctioning hospitals," said Ghassan Abu Sitta, a surgeon at Al-Shifa Hospital, who describes a steady deterioration in treatment conditions. "At Al-Shifa, there are 2,000 patients, while the capacity is 600 beds. Many are now sleeping in the hospital parking lot, for lack of floor space inside."

On Monday, November 6, Abu Sitta managed to transfer six patients to Al Ahli hospital – 3 kilometers away – where two surgical units and 20 beds were hastily prepared. "Because, in Al-Shifa, there is no longer enough fuel to run the generators and light the operating theatres. In the afternoon, the hospital's solar panels were targeted. The facility is covered in dust and smoke because of the bombings that have taken place around it." Israeli authorities have so far refused to allow hospitals to be supplied with fuel, accusing Hamas of keeping its own stockpiles for military operations.

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