GAZA(Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has reopened the reception and emergency department at Al-Shifa Medical Complex, following months of the complete destruction of the medical complex by occupation forces.
Dr. Maher Shamiya, the assistant minister of health, said on Monday that the department, which includes 70 beds and an operating room, in addition to 10 intensive care beds and other services, has begun receiving patients and providing its services. Treatment services for “kidney and heart” patients will be restored soon.
This comes after the Israeli occupation forces completely destroyed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex during the current aggression on the Gaza Strip.
At the beginning of April, the Israeli occupation army withdrew from Al-Shifa Medical Complex in western Gaza after about two weeks of besieging and storming the complex, leaving behind hundreds of martyrs and missing individuals, as well as extensive destruction of buildings.
The complex suffered destruction and devastation in all its sections, especially in the specialized surgery building, where the occupation forces destroyed medical equipment and burned the complex’s halls. After the army withdrew, filmed scenes showed charred bodies of martyrs in the streets and roads surrounding the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip. Medical sources reported finding mass graves and hundreds of bodies of martyrs in the complex and the surrounding streets.
Al-Shifa Complex was established in 1946 during the British occupation of Palestine and came under Israeli occupation in 1967, then under Palestinian Authority control after the Oslo Accords. Over time, it has developed into the largest medical complex in the coastal enclave, comprising three specialized hospitals and employing 25% of healthcare workers in the entire Gaza Strip.