- Gunfire at Nasser Hospital
- IDF detains, assaults medics
- Hostages reported in hospital
As the sun rose on Saturday, February 10, the sound of gunfire was already reverberating through the air.
Dr. Amira al-Assouli was in the maternity wing of Nasser Hospital when she heard a man yelling the shahada, the Islamic creed, directly in front of her window.
“A man has been injured,” individuals instantly began to yell.
Upon her hasty descent of the stairs, she discovered him to be deceased.
Ibrahim Salama, too, was awakened by the cries. Having been confined to a hut on the premises of the hospital, he ventured outside to observe the situation.
“I fell to the ground when I felt something extremely hot in my leg,” he adds. I was examining my limb, which felt extremely heavy and revealed an abundance of blood.
Assouli once more put her life at peril. An onlooker captured footage of her removing her jacket and sprinting towards him while lowering her head. “I failed to hesitate,” she declared.
Ibrahim recollects Dr. Assouli placing his hand on his chest and announcing, “He is still alive. “One lives.”
One of the most sizable and bustling medical facilities in Gaza prior to an IDF assault a month ago. Medical personnel’s allegations that IDF forces detained, assaulted, and humiliated them during the incursion were made public on Tuesday, inciting the United Kingdom government to demand responses from Israel. A “moral responsibility” exists for Israel to investigate credible complaints of human rights abuses or violations, according to the US State Department.
We can now demonstrate, by analyzing verified video footage and witness testimony, the events that transpired in the days preceding the assault. Outside the main entrance, medics, patients, and displaced civilians hunkered, describing how they were entrapped because anyone attempting to flee was fired at.
We thoroughly briefed the IDF on our findings and inquired about its operations at Nasser.
Israel has consistently levied allegations against Hamas militants, alleging that they concealed weapons and command centers within medical facilities and hospitals. Additionally, it is stated that Hamas and other armed groups hid hostages seized from Israel during the October 7 attacks in Gaza’s hospitals.
The IDF stated that “precise shots” were fired at “terrorists identified in the vicinity” in the days preceding its soldiers’ entry into the hospital, during which “active fights” occurred in the area.
The IDF reported discovering weapons and medications intended for Israeli hostages upon entering. In November, hostages who were liberated during a brief ceasefire reported being confined to chambers at that location.
Sharon Aloni Cunio has stated that she was transported to Nasser in an ambulance while disguised in traditional Arabic garb. In contrast, her husband, who is still in Gaza, was draped over a sheet to make him appear to be deceased. She stated that the couple, along with their two young children and other hostages, spent weeks in a small room on the first floor of the hospital, where the captive section was separated from other rooms by stacked boxes.
Others have provided comparable testimonies of being detained at the hospital, detailing instances of sobbing while confined to rooms, being required to call on doors to be escorted to the lavatory, and their dread at not being able to predict what would transpire.
According to those with whom we spoke in the hospital, including international medics who have worked and resided there since the start of the conflict, there was no apparent presence of Hamas combatants.
In the aftermath of the assault, the IDF reported that approximately 200 terrorist suspects, some of whom had “posed as medics,” had been apprehended.
Fear grew in Nasser in the days leading up to the assault; nearly everyone we spoke with who was present in the hospital at the time believed that IDF snipers and drones were aiming at individuals standing by windows or moving between buildings on the hospital grounds.
“They surrounded the hospital with tanks, bulldozers, quadcopter aircraft, and snipers were everywhere,” said oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Mahmoud Shammala, age 26.
“We must avoid positioning ourselves near the window, as doing so could result in gunfire striking our heads, chests, or shoulders. Moreover, bombings occur everywhere… Particularly challenging were the final days of the ordeal.
Individuals on the hospital premises were not adequately protected from gunfire.
“Many displaced individuals who were residing in the complex went about their daily lives when they were targeted,” Nasser doctor Mohammed Harara explained.
“There came a time when it was impossible to reach these injured individuals.” It would be self-sacrifice or self-endangerment to proceed in order to aid an injured individual inside. Many individuals attempted to reach out in an effort to rescue their wounded brothers, relatives, or anyone else they knew. “By attempting to communicate with them, they actually targeted them.”
The IDF stated, in response to a question regarding allegations of shootings inside Nasser, that it had only discharged “precise shots at terrorists” that had been identified in the vicinity of the hospital complex.
Hazim Abu Omar, a nurse, was shot and injured during her duty in the operating department on February 8.
A video posted online by a Nasser physician depicts the injured nurse being hurriedly transported to the operating room on foot. As his colleagues struggle to remove his blood-soaked garments, he appears to be losing consciousness.
Determining the causative agent of the discharge remains unattainable, and the IDF has refrained from providing any commentary on the matter.
A video from the same day depicts civilians utilizing an improvised pulley system to supply water to a gathering of individuals near the campus of one of the three schools in close proximity to the hospital.
The sound of a sizable gunshot accompanies a man’s endeavors to cross the street. Although it escapes his notice, it was recorded in close proximity to the location where the video was captured at the north gate of the hospital.
Fearful individuals traverse the hospital grounds as the drones’ buzzard is audible in additional videos that were uploaded on the same day.
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On February 10, Ibrahim Salama was shot in both legs while venturing outdoors to investigate the source of the commotion.
Fearful of approaching him while he lay in the blood-soaked shanty, a physician called out to him and urged him to continue speaking in an effort to prevent him from losing consciousness. While others stood immobile, they captured images and videos on their mobile devices.
Dr. Assouli arrived at Ibrahim’s side after he had been lying there for approximately an hour. She and the other medical personnel hurried him into the hospital on a stretcher.
A video from the same day depicts a man attempting to reach a lifeless or injured individual sprawled just a few feet from the hospital grounds by crawling along the ground. A video published the following day shows the identical corpse still lying there, indicating that no one deemed it safe to venture onto that street in order to retrieve it.
