‘Don’t wait until another massacre happens,’ Gaza doctor pleads

GAZA: A doctor at the Al-Shafaa Hospital in Gaza has implored the international community to stop the killing of innocent civilians in the enclave after a hospital was targeted on Tuesday evening. 

“This is really a genocide, according to international humanitarian law … The hospital is supposed to be a safe place. It’s supposed to be a shelter for displaced people,” Dr. Mohammed Ghoneim told Arab News as he was surrounded by dead bodies wrapped in white blankets and piled together.

“All of these casualties that came to the hospital … came as body parts, amputated without any signs of life,” he said.

Ghoneim pleaded: “We have only five main hospitals working now, and they will be out of service in the coming hours.

“Don’t wait until these hospitals become out of service … We are not feeling safe in this hospital now. We are not feeling safe in any place. Please stop this madness. Stop this genocide. Stop this humanitarian crisis.”

On Tuesday, an attack on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza killed hundreds of patients and civilians who had been asked to shelter in the hospital. Israel and the US accuse the Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad of carrying out the attack, which was the largest one-off attack since the start of the conflict.

As Biden touched down in Tel Aviv, he held a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he claimed that the attack on the hospital was likely not caused by an airstrike by the Israeli military.

“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said to Netanyahu, referring to Islamic Jihad.

The international community has condemned the attack, and a summit that was scheduled to be held in Amman between US President Joe Biden and leaders from Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority has been canceled following the massacre.