Gaza: Doctors Without Borders calls for the protection and safe evacuation of patients from Nasser hospital

Some 130 patients and at least 15 healthcare workers are still in the hospital with no electricity or running water and limited food, according to the United Nations, who say they have managed to transfer 32 patients in critical condition and are trying to evacuate the rest in the coming days. Doctors Without Borders is deeply concerned for the well-being of these patients and calls for their safe evacuation. Our teams at al-Aqsa hospital and Rafah Indonesian Field hospital are prepared to treat them if need be.

In the early hours of 15 February, a shell struck the orthopedic department of the facility causing chaos and killing and wounding an undetermined number of people. Fearing for their lives, Doctors Without Borders staff members had to flee the compound leaving behind several patients in severe condition. We have very little information about the remaining medical staff and patients and their condition.

This comes following weeks of heavy fighting near the hospital, where medical staff, patients and displaced people found themselves trapped inside the compound with very little access to essential supplies. Many people who were wounded by the intense bombing in Khan Younis were also unable to reach the hospital for emergency care.

Four days after the attack, Doctors Without Borders has still not heard from two of our staff members who were in the hospital at the time of the attack. One who has been unaccounted for since the attack and another who was detained at a checkpoint by Israeli forces while trying to leave Nasser hospital. We ask Israeli authorities to share information about their whereabouts and we call for their safety and protection of his dignity.