Leaders from across the Middle East and surrounding region are meeting in Saudi Arabia for an emergency summit on Gaza, as the territory’s largest hospital remains encircled by Israeli forces, without power, and with strikes “on everything moving inside the complex”, according to staff trapped inside.
“We are totally cut off from the whole world, we are minutes away from imminent death,” Mohammad abu Salmiya, the head of Dar al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera.
The hospital is the largest in the Gaza Strip and the linchpin of the medical system in the besieged territory, as well as now providing shelter to an estimated 15,000 people.
Tens of thousands more people fled the compound overnight, some walking miles to the south of Gaza, after a campaign of strikes drew closer to the large complex in the west of Gaza City as Israeli forces increasingly encircled the area with tanks and snipers.
“The hospital compound is cordoned off and the buildings of the hospital are targeted. Any moving person within the compound is targeted,” said Abu Salmiya. Israeli forces remained directly outside the complex, preventing those inside from fleeing, he said.
Hospital officials said they no longer had access to water, power or medical supplies, leaving the facility without the ability to sustain vital life support systems. One baby inside the intensive care unit in al-Shifa hospital had died due to a lack of oxygen supplies, according to statements from the Palestinian health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, with 39 more at risk of death inside incubators.
Health ministry staff including Qidra remained trapped inside al-Shifa along with medics and patients. Israeli forces, he said, were “firing on people moving inside the complex, which is limiting our ability to move from one department to another. Some people tried to leave the hospital and they were fired at.
“The situation is worse than anyone can imagine. We are besieged inside the al-Shifa medical complex, and the occupation has targeted most of the buildings inside,” he told Reuters.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces, Lt Col Richard Hecht, denied that Israeli forces had targeted the hospital in a press briefing on Friday. Israeli officials have maintained that Hamas operates from bunkers underneath al-Shifa, accusations that staff at the hospital and members of Hamas strenuously deny.
“The IDF does not fire on hospitals … we are aware of the sensitivity of the hospitals and I am aware of the dynamic at the hospitals,” Hecht said. “We are aware that Hamas are operating within the hospitals … We are not dropping bombs on al-Shifa.”
Israeli officials on Friday revised down, from 1,400 to 1,200, the death toll from the 7 October assault by Hamas militants on Israeli towns and kibbutzim near the Gaza border. An estimated 240 people have been held hostage in the Gaza Strip since then.
Israeli bombardments on Gaza have killed more than 11,000 people, with at least 25,000 more wounded, according to Palestinian officials. Barbara Leaf, the highest-ranking US state department official on the Middle East, told Congress last week the true death toll was probably “higher than is being cited”.
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, said: “Gaza is not an arena for words. It should be for action.” He made the remarks at Tehran airport before his departure for Saudi Arabia, his attendance at the meeting providing a fresh sign of cooperation between the two countries.
The Saudi news channel Al Ekhbariya showed images of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, landing in Saudi Arabia on Friday night, amid criticism of his attendance linked to accusations of war crimes committed in Syria, including airstrikes on hospital facilities.
On Saturday morning, the same channel showed the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, the Lebanese caretaker president, Najib Mikati, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, landing in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, or arriving at the entrance to a royal palace.
The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, told the summit: “We are [facing] a humanitarian catastrophe that [shows] the failure of the UN security council and international community.”
He said the “Israeli occupation authorities” bore responsibility for the crimes committed against civilians in Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Abbas called on the security council to “live up to its responsibility and obligation to put an end to this belligerent war on our people without further delay”. He also demanded that the Biden administration “put an end to Israel’s aggression, the occupation, violation and desecration of our holy sites”, and ensure protection for civilians.
“No military and security solutions are acceptable as they have all failed.”
Mohammad al-Hindi, the deputy secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, told a press conference in Beirut on Friday that the militant group did not “expect anything” to come from the meeting, and criticised leaders for taking so long to host talks on the matter.
“We are not placing our hopes on such meetings, for we have seen their results over many years … The fact that this conference will be held after 35 days [of war] is an indication of its outcomes,” he said.
Humanitarian organisations appealed to the international community for urgent protection of medical facilities across Gaza, particularly those in Gaza City and across the north which are increasingly unable to operate or are coming under fire. According to the Palestinian health ministry, 20 out of 35 hospitals in Gaza are no longer able to function.
Fabrizio Carboni, the regional director for the near and Middle East at the International Committee of the Red Cross, said on X, formerly Twitter: “The information coming from the al-Shifa hospital is distressing. It cannot continue like this. Thousands of wounded, displaced people and medical staff are at risk. They need to be protected in line with the laws of war.”
Médecins Sans Frontières said:“Over the last few hours, the attacks against al-Shifa hospital have dramatically intensified. We are currently unable to contact any of our staff inside al-Shifa, and we are extremely concerned about the safety of patients and the medical staff. Patients are still in the hospital, some in critical condition and unable to move. We urgently reiterate our calls to stop the attacks against hospitals and for the protection of medical facilities, medical staff, and patients.”
