Presenter:
Well, the World Health Organization says 97 people, including 13 patients, remain at Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia. It’s planning a mission on Friday to transfer those people out, but it’s warning the facility’s equipment cannot be moved. Dr. Mohammed Salha is the director of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza. He’s joining us on the line from there. Sir, thank you very much indeed for being with us. I appreciate, of course, that this is a difficult time for you. Can you just talk to us about where the medical staff and the patients are at the moment?

Dr. Mohammed Salha:
Yes. Actually the Israeli forces yesterday, they insist on us to evacuate the hospital and they forced us to evacuate. We refused many times to evacuate the hospital because it’s the last functioning hospital working in the north. So now the north in Gaza Strip is without any functioning hospital. We have referred the cases, the injured, to Shifa Hospital and we evacuated also the our staff in Gaza City. Actually we evacuated the the injured people and the patients with very difficult condition. So we are carrying them more than 200 m because all the roads to Al-Awda Hospital is totally closed, and the Israeli occupation forces insist to us to evacuate the hospital, and if we not evacuate the hospital they will bombing the hospital and killed everybody inside the hospital. So because of that, after 600 days Al-Awda Hospital is not out of service — even yesterday — that now Al-Awda Hospital is out of service in the northern Gaza Strip.

Presenter:
If the hospital remains empty, what medical help is there for people in northern Gaza?

Dr. Mohammed Salha:
No, no, there is no one is providing any medical services now. So who is needing health services should come to Gaza City, and it’s not easy — who is moved in the north, the occupation forces are targeted who is moved in the northern Gaza Strip. So a lot of people are injured in the streets. A lot of people are killed and they are murdered in the streets. Nobody can pick up them. There is no ambulances in the northern Gaza Strip. So who is injured, he or she will die in the in the streets and in their house, and nobody can help them, to evacuate these people, to Gaza’s hospitals or any hospital. After all the hospitals is out of service, there is no hospital now is receiving these cases to be with them.

Presenter:
If there are no medical services and there are bodies, as you say, lying in the streets, what is the risk, do you think, of disease spreading through the area?

Dr. Mohammed Salha:
So we speak about disease.

Presenter:
Yes, sir. Well, I was wondering — I was asking that given, as you were describing, there are bodies lying in the streets, injured people lying in the streets, there is no medical help for people in northern Gaza anymore. What is your concern about the spread of disease?

Dr. Mohammed Salha:
Yeah. So there’s, you know, it’s now all the people who is still injured in the streets, and actually the the disease is spreading in between the people. A lot of people are suffering from diseases which is spreading because of these bodies still in the streets and nobody can deal with these bodies and with these injured people. There is some cases coming throughout the hospital after 10 days of injuries. Their wound is infected and we dealing with them, doing to them the treatment in our operation theaters many times to help these injured. So you can imagine how is the feeling which one is more than 10 days and there is no health system that can deal with these cases. So, the infected wound is spreading between these injured people, and actually now it will be difficult for people who still in the north because they will not find any of health facilities can help them.

Presenter:
The hospital, as we were talking about, has been surrounded by Israeli troops for at least two weeks. Can you tell us, uh, what it is like to work under those conditions?

Dr. Mohammed Salha:
Yeah, so we are two weeks under siege. So it’s totally sieged. The Israeli occupation forces is bombing our two inpatient departments, and 50% of our beds, capacity of beds, are out of service. Also they are targeting the the water tanks, also the fuel tanks, also our generators. Also they are setting on fire our central store, and Al-Awda Hospital is without central store of medication and medical supplies. Before 5 days they set on fire our central store, and now all of our medication and medical supplies is gone. So we don’t have any of medication, medical supplies, and if we are still providing a services, so we will face the challenges because of the shortage of medication and medical supplies which is on fire because of the Israeli occupation forces.

Presenter:
You and your staff have been working at the hospital for so long under incredible circumstances. Can you talk to us about what it feels like to finally have to leave the hospital?

Dr. Mohammed Salha:
So it’s, it’s not easy to have a decision to leave the hospital. But actually the Israeli occupation forces forced us to to evacuate. We refuse to evacuate the hospital because we know this hospital is important for our people in the northern Gaza Strip, and we know this is the last functioning hospital in the north. So, if there is no our hospital, so many people will die because they will not have a health services in the northern Gaza Strip. And the people now without any health facilities in the north. So because of that we always refuse to evacuate, but this time has forced us to evacuate, and if we are not, they threatened me directly: “We will kill you and kill everybody at the hospital, your staff and your patient, if you don’t want to evacuate.”

Presenter:
Dr. Mohammed Salha, we appreciate you giving us your time, sir. Thank you very much indeed.