After Israeli soldiers invaded the Nasr Children’s Hospital, west of Gaza City, on November 10, 2023, forcing all medical staff to evacuate with the promise that “an international team was on its way to evacuate the children from the hospital”, the children were left there to die, and their corpses were left to decompose.
Dr. Mona Sohweil said: “We has no idea that the occupation army left the babies to die, and their bodies decompose without allowing anyone to save them,” and added that the horrific crime was committed by the Israeli army who not only did not evacuate the children but also left them there to die alone, without medicine, food or water.
Dr. Sohweil, who herself was displaced along with her family from northern Gaza, said she was working as a pediatrician at the Intensive Care Unit of the Nasr Hospital, and added that the soldiers stormed the medical facility on November 10, before forcing the staff to evacuate.
The Doctor, who now works at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, said the army first surrounded and isolated the hospital, before forcing the staff to evacuate after “assuring them that coordination was made with international organizations to take the children to another hospital,” however, the promise was a lie, and the children were left them to die.
“We wanted and were prepared to evacuate with the children who were hooked to ventilators, but the soldiers ordered us to leave them behind, with the promise that an “international team would take care of the children’s transfer to other facilities.”
Dr. Sohweil stated that all communications were cut off, and the medical staff were dispersed across the various remaining, barely functional, hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
“It was only later, almost three weeks later, that we saw through media outlets and social media, the pictures and the videos of the children’s corpses on their beds,” she stated, “We realized then that the army left the children there to die and their bodies decomposed.”
On February 16, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qedra, the spokesperson of the Health Ministry in Gaza, confirmed the death of five infants in the Nasr hospital and said their corpses were found decomposed after the army refused to allow their transfer to other hospitals, and forced the medical staff to leave.
Back on November 10, 2023, the Health Ministry said the Israeli army had surrounded and isolated both the Rantisi Hospital and the Nasser Hospital.
“The occupation army did not allow the transfer of babies from Nasr Hospital, and forced the removal of medical staff,’ Dr. Al-Qedra said, “Only during the temporary seven-day truce which started on November 24, that we discover the five decomposed bodies of the children, who were left to die alone with any medical care, food or water.”
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