Description

(Photo: Basman Alashi holds part of an Israeli projectile that struck the hospital's fourth floor Friday evening, demolishing a wall and damaging doors and windows. Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

Al Wafa Hospital, Gaza Photo by Flickr
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from ElectronicIntifada.net

Basman Alashi, the executive director of al-Wafa Geriatric Hospital in Gaza City, describes the series of Israeli rocket strikes on the hospital on Friday, and the traumatic effects on vulnerable and chronically ill patients.

Click Soundcloud News Source Link to hear Hostpial Director's report

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from Amira Hass for Haaretz
| Jul. 12, 2014 | 12:42 AM

International solidarity activists are staying in a Gaza hospital, which the Israel Defense Forces has indicated it plans to bomb, as a human shield. They joined patients unable to leave because the rest of Gaza's hospitals are in a state of emergency, treating persons injured in the bombings and waiting for more patients to come in.

Two warning rockets were fired at the Al Wafa hospital east of Gaza City at 2 A.M. early Friday morning, Director Basman al Ashi told Haaretz. At 7 P.M. a rocket was fired at the fourth floor, blasting a large hole in the ceiling and shattering windows. The floor was evacuated on Wednesday.

After the rocket was fired someone called the hospital. Speaking in Arabic with a distinct Israeli accent he asked if there were patients on the top floor, if anyone was injured and if there were plans of evicting it. The answer to each of the questions was negative.

Al Wafa is the only rehabilitation hospital in the Gaza Strip. Established in 1996, it is intended for patients injured in serious accidents. Currently there are 14 patients aged over 60 being treated in the hospital, who require constant care and who cannot take care of themselves without medical supervision. Some of them are immobile, others are being fed intravenously. 25 other patients in less of an acute state left the hospital al Ashi told Haaretz.

Joseph Catron, a 33-year-old American, is one of the activists that decided to stay at the hospital as a human shield together with colleges from New Zealand, Australia, England, Spain, Sweden, and Venezuela. Catron told Haaretz that the hospital's director took them on a tour of all the hospital's floors and rooms and "though I am not a military man, I didn't see anything resembling a rocket in the hospital."

According to Catron, he and his friends notified their respective embassies that they are staying at the hospital slated to be bombed by the IDF.