WHO 'appalled' by Israel attack on northern Gaza's last functioning major hospital

[groundloop]

Source: The Guardian

The World Health Organization says it is “appalled” by an Israeli raid which it said had shut down and partly destroyed the last major hospital still functioning in northern Gaza.

Israel’s “systematic dismantling of the health system” combined with a siege of the population in the north of the coastal strip over the past 80 days “puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk”, the WHO said.

It cited initial reports that some departments of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia “were burnt and severely damaged during the raid, including the laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operations theatre, and the medical store”.

Local sources in Beit Lahia said that most of the medics and nurses detained in Friday’s raid had been released but the hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, was still unaccounted for.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/28/who-appalled-by-israel-attack-on-northern-gazas-last-functioning-major-hospital

[uncledad]

1. It's called ethnic cleansing

"Israel’s “systematic dismantling of the health system” combined with a siege of the population in the north of the coastal strip over the past 80 days “puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk”"

Israel has become a terrorist state, the very thing they purport to be fighting. Biden had a chance to shut this down unfortunately he like so many other so called liberal politicians and media types in this country can't see or are afraid to to see what is really happening. With Trump coming into office it's too late now for the people of Gaza.

[elias7]

2. Right, because the Gazans have no agency for themselves. Stop bombing Israel, return hostages, end war, simple

And speaking of ethnic cleansing and its cousin genocide, there were more births than deaths in Gaza this past 12 months.

[uncledad]

4. Is the WHO wrong to be appalled?

If you approve of the killing tens of thousands of innocent women and children then just say so, own it!

[Beastly Boy]

32. Yes, and the very least they can do is to be more accurate about what appauls them.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that a military raid, completed Saturday, on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza had killed 19 terror operatives, without any known civilian casualties, after Hamas-run health authorities previously claimed — and some international media reported — that 50 people had been killed, including hospital staff.

--snip--

The IDF said some of the terror operatives posed as medical staff and patients, and some tried to leave on stretchers and in ambulances. Of a first group of 21 patients leaving the hospital, the military said that 13 turned out to be suspected terror operatives.

--snip--

Before launching the operation, the IDF said it enabled the evacuation of 350 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel to other hospitals, in an effort coordinated by the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

--snip--

Within another hour, civilians sheltering at the medical center, along with patients, began to evacuate, following calls by the IDF to leave. As part of the evacuation, they passed through a military checkpoint, at which point those suspected of being terror operatives were taken into custody. Meanwhile, the patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were taken to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, where the IDF delivered fuel, generators, and other medical equipment from Kamal Adwan.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-19-terrorists-no-known-civilians-killed-in-gaza-hospital-raid-hamas-said-50-dead/

[TiberiusB]

6. That would be thanks to women being pregnant before Israel attacked

The overall birthrate in Gaza has been declining for years.

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/HRV/palestine/birth-rate

Also, we don't know the actual total number of deaths as all bodies have not been recovered, and there is no firm statistic yet on deaths due to malnutrition, disease, and dehydration, among other factors.
Even if Gazans were fornication obsessed sex machines, it doesn't justify the collective punishment.

[AloeVera]

13. Agency? Wtf

Would you like the million starving children to rise up against Hamas that even the IDF hasn't managed to locate and eradicate ( so they say). Or the bedraggled and weakened parents and grandparents running from bombs and scavenging for animal feed or a drink of water, to try to keep their kids alive?

No, the people of Gaza have no agency to stop this slaughter on them.

I won't even address the pitiful new talking point about new births. Your side seems to thinks it's genius, a brilliant new addition -I've seen it often repeated recently.

In fact it's a sad reflection of desperation that people are willing to sacrifice their critical thinking and grasp at straws to defend the indefensible.

[Dave Bowman]

14. "In fact it's a sad reflection of desperation that people are willing to sacrifice their critical thinking...

... and grasp at straws to defend the indefensible.

I'm seeing this behavior here and find it disgusting.

[AloeVera]

16. It is. Also infuriating and crazy-making too.

It started with the HUMAN SHIELDS (TM) excuse to rationalize the indiscriminate bombing. I wasted countless hours of my life trying to activate some critical thinking. It went on from there.

Zionism is a cult now, probably always was. Immune to reason, fairness, laws and morality. Modernity. Israel and supporters need de-programming. De-radicalization - just as Nutty is calling for for Gaza. Perhaps then there will be peace.

I'll get dumped on but so what. Eventually everyone will realize it's true.

[Beastly Boy]

23. I agree completely.

And thank you for illustrating exactly what is so disturbing about replacing critical thinking with memes and selectively disregarding basic information in favor of incendiary rhetoric.

It was rather convincing.

Well, at least you show awareness of what is to be expected when this happens.

[AloeVera]

25. Ummm ok.

Nt

[Beastly Boy]

28. I see I am still on your ignore list.

Last edited Thu Jan 2, 2025, 12:10 AM - Edit history (1)

Don't you think you ought to stop saying I am? It was funny the first three times, but you can't hide it anymore: deep down, you are just as big a fan of free speech as I am, and you would never threaten to put anyone on your ignore list, except as a silly joke, right?

[Beastly Boy]

22. No, that's not what I would like, obviously.

Last edited Wed Jan 1, 2025, 08:36 PM - Edit history (1)

What I would like is the thousands of Hamas apologists to shut the fuck up with ridiculous over the top red herrings and start paying attention to Hamas devastating Gaza and starving its children. Their silence on the subject is deafening, and their endless invocations of starving children to deflect from the subject whenever it comes up is despicable.

[AloeVera]

24. Gaslighting at its "finest".

Nt

[Beastly Boy]

27. Are you by any chance suggesting that Hamas murderers and their fratricidal leaders are not responsible

for the deaths and starvation of Gazan civilians? Despite multiple instances of these leaders stating on the record that this was exactly what they intended to cause and pledging to do the same thing again and again?

Are you suggesting that their apologist minions should not shut the fuck up and pay attention, for once, to what their idols are saying and doing in Gaza?

I don't think gaslighting means what you think it means.

[duhneece]

3. It reminds me of an abused child growing up to be an abuser

I hate that I’m losing compassion for the nation that had its citizens killed and/or held as hostages.
The response of Israel is not proportional to its losses.
It IS ethnic cleansing or genocide. I don’t know which.

[Igel]

7. The response isn't proportional.

But nowhere is it written that it has to be.

I mean, somebody beats up your kid, proportionality says you beat him. He stabs your kid, he gets stabbed. What's this depriving them of essential liberty for years business? That's not proportional. But if you have a bigger weapon when the guy's coming to stab your kid and shoot him, you know, that's self-defense. Disproportionate? Yeah, but nobody says you have to just take the abuse, wait to see how bad it is.

Proportionate would have been invading Gaza, raping hundreds of women then killing them, abusing hundreds of men and then killing them--in heinous ways. Taking videos of what you did, parading captives and bodies in the streets of Jerusalem, and grabbing hundreds of hostages and executing some of them.

None of this sounds good to me. But Hamas is a risk and has vowed to repeat this kind of thing. I'm not sure what proportionate is when you get death threats after some of your family's been killed. What, making death threats in return? Maybe the international police should have gone in to arrest those making the threats? And if they didn't surrender, what do you do?

[uncledad]

10. Israel had the right to respond

to the Oct. 7th attack. What should have been done was to send in as many ground troops as it took to capture and kill the Hamas fighters. That is not what they did. Because they do not value Palestinian civilian lives they conducted and still persist in a relentless bombing campaign on an unarmed civilian population. I realize that Hamas is hiding amongst the civilian population but that does not justify killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Anyone who looks at this objectively can see that Israel's intention is not just to wipe out Hamas they want to push the Palestinians from their ancestral lands. Once Gaza is complete the west bank will be next. I was in the Army we were taught to obey the laws of war and the uniformed code of military justice. What the IDF is doing is nowhere near either of those. Every human rights organization in the world has called what Israel is doing unjustified and most call it genocide. If you think what Israel is doing is justified than just say so. Own it.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

5. Bibi can thumb his nose at WHO more than ever now his puppet is out of storage

[moniss]

8. I have great doubt that the IDF attack on the airport

in Yemen that happened right when the WHO people were there was some sort of "coincidence".

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

9. Is it just me, or does the name hospital look remarkably close to Jehoshaphat?

If I were a religious person, I'd be extra careful not to bomb a hospital, you know, just in case.

[AloeVera]

12. A-B-O-M-I-N-A-T-I-ON.

The WHO statement said that some of the staff and those patients who were in a stable condition were moved to an unnamed nearby location, while others had been forcibly transferred to the Indonesian hospital, so called because its construction was funded by Indonesia, which had been badly damaged by earlier bombing and was no longer functional.

Forcibly moving 15 critical patients to a useless hospital that is unable to help them is some twisted mind's idea of what -entertainment? It's sadism, pure and simple. The IDF is now occupying the hospital. How hard would it have been to either wait for the WHO to transport them, or to transfer them themselves to a FUNCTIONING hospital. Not only the moral thing to do but their legal obligation as well.

Additionally, some people were reportedly stripped and forced to walk toward southern Gaza,” the WHO said. Some of the medics who had been detained told reporters they had been beaten and stripped by their Israeli captors. Gaza’s health ministry said: “We appeal to the relevant institutions to find a solution for the patients and injured currently in the Indonesian hospital.”

It added that some patients and health workers had died at the Kamal Adwan hospital in fires started by the IDF, and that Abu Safiyeh was “violently beaten by the occupation forces before his arrest”.

Same damned playbook. Every time. Minus the dogs. Next up: Kamal Adwan reduced to ashes and rubble, even its surviving equipment vandalized and destroyed. Like Al Shifa.

Meanwhile the killing goes on. The newly wounded and sick kids, adults will now die in agony.

Never, ever forget.

[Beastly Boy]

33. Where did you get the 15 critical patients being moved to a useless hospital?

Last edited Wed Jan 1, 2025, 11:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Certainly not in the OP.

And the dogs again. Smacks of Trump bringing up "they are eating the dogs". Sourced just as reliably, repeated just as frequently, with the similar intent to scandalize rather than inform.

Shocking, isn't it?

[AloeVera]

34. It's in the article. You have to read beyond the title.

Kamal Adwan is now empty,” the statement said. “On Friday evening, the remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred to Indonesian hospital, which lacks the necessary equipment and supplies to provide adequate care. The movement and treatment of these critical patients under such conditions pose grave risks to their survival.

I love dogs. The IDF sadly has been known to use them as attack dogs in their hospital raids. Patients and displaced in these hospitals have been mauled. A disabled man in his home was mauled to death.

These are trained attack dogs of course. Distinct from the wild or orphaned dogs eating Palestinians killed by the IDF.

Truth is ugly. The dogs are blameless.

[Beastly Boy]

35. There is no mention, as you can read yourself, of "Forcibly moving 15 critical patients to a useless hospital

that is unable to help them" in the article. In fact, all indications are that Indonesian Hospital, where the critical patients were moved, is indeed a functioning hospital and remains so. It is also a hospital that has not lost its protective status under international law like Kamal Adwan did by sheltering able-bodied Hamas operatives in it. Conspicuously, the article doesn't mention that.

Before launching the operation, the IDF said it enabled the evacuation of 350 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel to other hospitals, in an effort coordinated by the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

and

Meanwhile, the patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were taken to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, where the IDF delivered fuel, generators, and other medical equipment from Kamal Adwan.

Presumably, this includes the 15 critical patients you imagine were subjected to cruel sadism.

and

Kamal Adwan Hospital is now out of service after its staff, patients, and equipment — including generators and critical medical equipment — were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital, also located in Jabalia.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-19-terrorists-no-known-civilians-killed-in-gaza-hospital-raid-hamas-said-50-dead/

Also remains unmentioned that the "initial reports" of fire being set in the hospital and the "some people" being stripped and forced to walk, are both baseless rumors unsubstantiated by any evidence.

I used to train dogs for a living. I know that the first thing a minimally trained service dog learns, way before she is trained to attack, is not to attack without a reason. While I am not discounting a possibility that there may have been a single instance of one disabled man being attacked in his home, I very much doubt that the attack was not provoked, and I somehow doubt that him being Palestinian affected the dog's judgement.

As far as wild dogs eating dead humans, I have yet to see any evidence that this happens nearly as frequently in Gaza as it does in your posts. Hence my reference to Trump's "they eat dogs" BS.

[AloeVera]

36. Do you think Palestinian lives are inferior or expendable?

You are claiming that a hospital declared by the WHO as lacking the necessary equipment and supplies to provide adequate care - a hospital in fact that was under siege, attacked in October and evacuated already - is good enough for Palestinians. Functional means good enough, no?

Would it be good enough for an Israeli or an American? Highly doubtful.

As proof of your claim, you resort to the ubiquitous "all indications are", an assertion used by questionable, evidence-free debaters. Who is indicating that, how is it indicated?

The rest is "IDF says" "COGAT ("There is no limit to the amount of aid allowed to enter Gaza" wink wink) says.

Shocking that the IDF would not reveal that it had set fires or shelled/destroyed areas of the hospital. Shocking, I tell ya!

I still love dogs. It's never their fault - it's their handlers. As a dog trainer, you would know that.

[Beastly Boy]

37. Two separate replies for two separate issues: one for the header and the other for the rest of your post.

Last edited Fri Jan 3, 2025, 09:56 AM - Edit history (1)

For the header, no. And don't conflate it with the rest of what you are talking about.

"Good enough" and "functional" are obviously not synonymous, since "good enough" is subjective and "functional" is descriptive. And you falsely claimed the hospital to be non-functional, quite different from passing a judgement of "not good enough", which, being subjective, is disputable as well. So if you can't stick with what you said earlier, don't blame anyone for it but yourself.

WHO, according to you, claimed fire being set in the hospital and naked people being marched south. It was on them, not COGAT, to substantiate their claims. They didn't. It was on you to substantiate their claims before you amplified them in your post. You didn't. You took these claims for granted, as God's honest truth, based entirely on nothing but rumors that were at the core of WHO's claims. No one other than those who spread rumors is obligated to reveal anything. So don't deflect on COGAT what is on you to fact check. And don't presume anyone not revealing something that you take for granted without proof is an excuse for your failure.

And with all due deference for your love of dogs, you don't seem to know anything about how military service dogs are trained and how their handlers are trained. Military service dogs are not domestic pooches, they are lethal weapons, and their handlers are not just dog lovers, they are highly trained and responsible in using their dogs as such in all situations. You are not in a position to pass generic judgements on either. Don't presume fault where there is none.

[AloeVera]

38. You didn't have to answer a rhetorical question.

But your answer didn't disappoint. Take that however you want.

The WHO declared the Indonesian Hospital non-functional in their statement. But you know better, of course.

Except - you overlooked the contradiction here:

Meanwhile, the patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were taken to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, where the IDF delivered fuel, generators, and other medical equipment from Kamal Adwan.

So very nice of the IDF to replenish a "functioning" hospital for the sake of 15 new patients. It's certainly a new development.

One or the other of these things is not true.

Perhaps neither.

Bye.

[Beastly Boy]

39. That was a loaded and a deflective rhetorical question. I didn't have to, but I answered it to make you aware

that the nature of your questioning is duly noted. Just because the question was rhetorical doesn't make it immune from challenge on other grounds.

It cited initial reports that some departments of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia “were burnt and severely damaged during the raid

, etc.

Not direct observations, not verified accounts, not even the identity of sources that supplied the "initial reports". Just unsubstantiated rumors. But you knew that. Yet, this doesn't stop you from repeating and amplifying the rumors.

Before launching the operation, "IDF said it enabled the evacuation of 350 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel to other hospitals". In addition"...the patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were taken to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, where the IDF delivered fuel, generators, and other medical equipment from Kamal Adwan." IN ALL, "95 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were evacuated from Kamal Adwan." (https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-19-terrorists-no-known-civilians-killed-in-gaza-hospital-raid-hamas-said-50-dead/0). As per WHO, "On Friday evening, the remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred to Indonesian hospital"

If you compare these numbers, by the time the 15 critical patients arrived to the Indonesian Hospital, the hospital had 20 health workers and 50 care givers for 25 patients. That's at least four health workers and ten caregivers for every five patients, in addition to the fuel, generators and other medical equipment delivered by IDF.

I wish I had this much attention in any of the best US hospital. Good enough indeed! And how can you call such well staffed and equipped hospital "non-functional" with a straight face?

And wouldn't the fact of the transfer of all the aforementioned patients, personnel and supplies to Indonesia Hospital in itself make the hospital functional?

What contradictions are you talking about? And what in particular in this timeline do you find mutually exclusive?

I don't want to brag, but as a statement of facts, it appears I DO know better.

[ZRB]

15. Gaza's government should surrender...

And return the hostages.

[AloeVera]

17. Until then, the sadism and inhumanity can continue?

It's what you're really saying.

You should just come out and say it outright.

[uncledad]

18. They won't say it because they approve of the ethnic cleansing.

It is a shared goal Bibi, the IDF, people that support Zionism they support Israel as an Apartheid state. It is racism pure and simple.

[AloeVera]

21. Yes. They should just come out and say it.

It's the gaslighting, perversion of logic and reason and the general bullshittery of hasbara- explanation that drive me nuts.

As someone else said, OWN IT.

Then let's see what ya got and how you defend it.

[Beastly Boy]

29. No, it doesn't have to. It will end as soon as the terrorists move out of civilian areas. Period.

They can do this immediately. Nobody is stopping them.

They can release all the remaining hostages immediately. Nobody is stopping them.

They can disarm and surrender later. Nobody will stop them.

Unfortunately, it is the Hamas terrorists who are determined to to keep the sadism and inhumanity going.

[uncledad]

19. Surrender?

Most of Hama's leadership has been killed if Israel was serious about ending the slaughter they could easily go in and get the rest of them without bombing hospitals and starving children. Israel will be settling Gaza in the next few months, they want as many dead women and children as possible, this is ethnic cleansing followed by a land grab. Did you notice how quickly Israel agreed to a cease fire with Lebanon? They agreed to a cease fire because Lebanon actually has a military capable of fighting back. Israel doesn't do war with armed militaries they murder unarmed civilians with some of the most advanced weapons of war on the planet.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

26. LOL.

That is some Grade A BS right there.

[Beastly Boy]

30. Go and get them where?

Hospitals? Schools? Humanitarian areas? Tunnels under apartment buildings?

Where else can IDF "go and get them"? If you are in possession of a storyline to that Hollywood fiction, I am pretty sure they would appreciate the scenario that will allow them to just go and get them.

[C0RI0LANUS]

20. Pogrom, Ethnic Cleansing, or Genocide? What does an expert say? Well, ask a Holocaust survivor.

Rene Lichtman (86) on the right, poses with Palestinian activist Nabil Sater. Both men laid down in a Michigan street together to protest the Nakba. (31 May 2024 photo courtesy of Forward, an independent Jewish non-profit organization).

Does anybody on Democratic Underground know more about genocide than a man who survived a genocide-- the Holocaust?

I wish I could talk to Mr. Lichtman personally and learn every little thing I could from him.

Source:

https://forward.com/news/618082/holocaust-survivor-cut-museum-protest-gaza/

[Beastly Boy]

31. I also wish you could talk to hundreds of other holocaust survivors who vehemantly disagree

with him, and learn every little thing from all of them.

But something tells me you wouldn't be interested in that.