Israel destroys el-Wafa hospital as staff evacuates all patients

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

Last edited Thu Jul 17, 2014, 09:36 PM - Edit history (1)

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/hospital-evacuate-patients.html

The Israeli military has destroyed el-Wafa rehabilitation hospital in the Gaza Strip, after first targeting the facility with five missiles on July 11, 2014. The Israeli military began striking the building around 8 pm this evening and within two hours all hospital staff and patients had evacuated the only rehabilitation center in the Gaza Strip. As they departed what remained intact from the medical center burned to the ground.

“It’s already destroyed,” said Basman Alashi, director of el-Wafa, continuing, “I don’t know how much is left of it, but we have evacuated all of our patients. We lost power, there was a fire in the building.”

Alashi spoke to me via telephone from his house in Gaza, unable to cross the Israeli shelling to reach the hospital. “I left the hospital at seven and within two hours they had bombed the hospital.” Shells hit every floor of the building, and a fire spread throughout.

After the Israeli army began striking the hospital, Alashi and el-Wafa’s 25 nurses made desperate arrangements to relocate the last 17 patients. Many of those in el-Wafa’s care are paralyzed and are connected to oxygen support. Some of the nurses left the building to seek help, braving Israeli fire on the streets in order to track down an ambulance with an oxygen tank.

Well well, my fellow DUers. I guess that hitting hospitals is what Democracies do.

Now what other democracies target and destroy hospitals during an offensive?

It's always possible that some social democrats did it in another time in history.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

[shira]

1. Mondoweiss supported Hamas rejection of a ceasefire.

Apparently, the zombies at Mondoweiss believe not enough Palestinian blood has been shed….

They live for a war like this, where they get to trash Israel while cheering on more Palestinian deaths. Palestinians die, they get to blame the Zionists.

Win for Mondoweiss.

[chimpymustgo]

9. How about Israel stop killing innocents? Disgusting.

[peacebird]

11. Exactly.

[newfie11]

14. +infinity!!!

[Jefferson23]

2. No.

[hrmjustin]

3. I saw on twitter that they were shelling it for days and today they destroyed it.

Just sickening. Reading twitter the last few days is just so sad.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. Does Israel claim that rockets were launched from the building?

Or give any other reason for destroying the hospital?

Or just a 'no comment'?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. If this is not considered a war crime, then it should be.

Hospitals are humanitarian places and should NEVER be destroyed.

I am sickened and livid.

Shame on the Israeli military and on the leaders who caused this to happen.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

7. My dear CaliforniaPeggy, thatnk you for being a voice of reason.

Some things should not happen during times of conflict. Destroying hospitals is one of them.

Peace.

[regnaD kciN]

12. But...but...but...

...don't you realize the first rule of Middle East opinion: "Israel always right, Palestinians always eeeeeeeeeeevil"...?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. I know a lot of folks think that way...

I am not one of them.

[Aerows]

22. When you bomb a hospital

you are certainly not doing the right thing. I can't imagine how you could "mistake" a hospital for any other type of building.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

26. Me either, my dear Aerows...Hospitals are unmistakable. n/t

[Aerows]

27. It's plain sickening.

Everybody knows what a hospital looks like, pretending they don't is just disgusting.

[shira]

6. No news outlet of any kind is reporting this. n/t

[hrmjustin]

8. Well when the sun comes up and the hospital is not there then you know that they were telling the

truth. Kind of hard to report in a war zone.

[hrmjustin]

19. How do you know there is?

[hrmjustin]

21. People who are being injured need their hospital.

Where are people supposed to go? Why shoot at a hospital ehen there are still patients inside?

[Aerows]

24. It's unspeakable

and I won't say that bombing a hospital, for Heaven's sake, is acceptable under any circumstance. It's madness to defend such an act.

[Mosby]

34. you can't trust mondoweiss

At all.

Did you notice that in the article the Palestinians are blaming the Israelis AND the international Red Cross?

Doesn't that seem a little odd?

I guess the Red Cross are genocidal monsters just like the Jews.

[Aerows]

41. I had dealings with the Red Cross

when I went through Hurricane Katrina. That has absolutely nothing to do with this, however - bombing a hospital to ruins is in no way defensible. You may call me what you wish, insinuate what you wish, but while it doesn't reach the level of genocide, shelling a hospital to the ground is despicable.

If you defend that, you can imply anything you wish of my character.

[Aerows]

23. A hospital is a hospital

bombing one, and they are unmistakable, is horrible.

Pretending that it is anything other than horrible is ludicrous.

[hrmjustin]

32. Agreed!

[Mosby]

35. and the red cross are monsters also per the article

[hrmjustin]

36. I don't agree they are monsters.

[Mosby]

37. OK, but it's not your "narrative" is it?

"I said that the Red Cross is cooperating with the Israelis to destroy the hospital,” Alashi continued, recounting his earlier conversation with the representative from the ICRC. “I’m going to take you, the Red Cross and the Israelis to the International Criminal Court,” he announced before hanging up the telephone."

[hrmjustin]

38. the hospital is destroyed. that is criminal in my view.

[Mosby]

39. just to clarify

If the IDF fired missiles at this hospital for no reason then they should be condemned in the strongest terms, I completely agree that it would be a criminal act.

It's not right to draw conclusions at this point however, without hearing the other side of the story. Hamas and their supporters have a horrendous track record when it comes to telling the truth, just today there is a story coming from Palestinian officials that the IDF is using sarin gas against Gazans. It's ridiculous.

Some of the highly partisan (to put it diplomatically) websites like mondoweiss, EI and +972 blog have no issues with simply repeating the lies told to them by Hamas and their apologists. That's not reporting, that's spreading anti-Israel propaganda, so using these sites for information about the conflict is an exercise in futility. They are the Palestinian equivalent of Fox news.

What we do know is that Hamas will fire rockets from civilian areas, including mosques, schools and hospitals. Just a couple days ago the UN found 20 Hamas rockets hidden in a school in Gaza. Call me crazy, but I don't think Hamas and company have any credibility at all.

[hrmjustin]

40. Well from twitter I saw tweets saying that the hospital was being shelled for days while

patients wrre still inside. I can't say whether hamas was there but you do not shoot at a hospital with patients in it.

And the fact that there are a large amount of wounded tells you that you leave hospitals alone.

I think they were wrong to do this.

[Aerows]

42. I agree

and implying that people who disagree with bombing a hospital have character defects speaks for itself.

[Aerows]

43. Just what are you implying?

That people that are appalled at the bombing of a hospital are somehow as guilty as the people that died in that hospital? If so, you are conflating events so desperately that I truly can't figure out where you are trying to go with this train of thought.

[Mosby]

45. I didn't say anything like that

Hamas wants to use human shields as much as possible so they fire rockets from schools, mosques and hospitals.

Then when the Israelis defend themselves by returning fire they win on the propaganda front even if they lose a fighter or civilian.

Even though Hamas is not even remotely progressive, they have learned how to manipulate progressives and liberals feelings to their advantage, something I find very frustrating.

[Aerows]

47. You are free to continue

with this train wreck of an "argument" but frankly, I don't think anyone believes it. I certainly don't.

[Mosby]

48. Marching orders from today

"Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine, before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank. Don't forget to always add 'innocent civilian' or 'innocent citizen' in your description of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

"Begin [your reports of] news of resistance actions with the phrase 'In response to the cruel Israeli attack,' and conclude with the phrase 'This many people have been martyred since Israel launched its aggression against Gaza.' Be sure to always perpetuate the principle of 'the role of the occupation is attack, and we in Palestine are fulfilling [the role of] the reaction.'

"Beware of spreading rumors from Israeli spokesmen, particularly those that harm the home front. Be wary regarding accepting the occupation's version [of events]. You must always cast doubts on this [version], disprove it, and treat it as false.


"When speaking to the West, you must use political, rational, and persuasive discourse, and avoid emotional discourse aimed at begging for sympathy. There are elements with a conscience in the world; you must maintain contact with them and activate them for the benefit of Palestine. Their role is to shame the occupation and expose its violations.

"Avoid entering into a political argument with a Westerner aimed at convincing him that the Holocaust is a lie and deceit; instead, equate it with Israel's crimes against Palestinian civilians.

"The narrative of life vs. the narrative of blood: [When speaking] to an Arab friend, start with the number of martyrs. [But when speaking] to a Western friend, start with the number of wounded and dead. Be sure to humanize the Palestinian suffering. Try to paint a picture of the suffering of the civilians in Gaza and the West Bank during the occupation's operations and its bombings of cities and villages.

"Do not publish photos of military commanders. Do not mention their names in public, and do not praise their achievements in conversations with foreign friends!"

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8076.htm

You see the part I bolded? They are talking about Liberals and Progressives.

I can't stop you from ignoring the obvious but you're being used IMO.

[Aerows]

49. I take marching orders from no one

I'm just a human being.

[azurnoir]

44. Here's the entire 'narrative' in which the ICRC could seem to play the 'willing fool'

Only after the facility was under heavy fire and in the process of being abandoned did Alashi receive a phone call from the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) relaying a message from the Israeli army. A women who identified herself as a delegate of the ICRC said, “the Israelis asked ‘how much time do you need to evacuate,’” said Alashi, answering “two hours.” However, within an hour when the woman called back and said the Israeli army “will halt the bombings, and not bomb the hospital any more,” the facility was already in rubble. Alashi responded, “Are you joking, are you making a mockery of me? I told her it’s too late they have already destroyed it.”

“I said that the Red Cross is cooperating with the Israelis to destroy the hospital,” Alashi continued, recounting his earlier conversation with the representative from the ICRC. “I’m going to take you, the Red Cross and the Israelis to the International Criminal Court,” he announced before hanging up the telephone.

[bemildred]

10. Israeli tanks shell Gaza hospital, injure several

Baku-APA. Several people have suffered injuries after Israeli tanks shelled a hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The director of Gaza's al-Wafa hospital, where some patients are paralyzed or in comas, said the facility was targeted on Thursday.

"Israeli tanks are shelling the hospital, they have hit several of the floors, and several nurses have been injured," AFP quoted Basman al- Ashi as saying.

The director of the hospital further noted that their attempt for transferring patients to other hospitals has failed.

http://en.apa.az/news/214086

[HooptieWagon]

15. The Israeli propagandists on DU should be ashamed for defending this.

I guess there's no bar so low they won't stoop to get under. Simply pathetic.

[Duppers]

17. +100

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

50. .

[Duppers]

16. so much for another surgical strike, uh.

....but....

(Pun was not intended)

[Aerows]

25. Shelling a hospital

goes WAY beyond the pale.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

54. It certainly does, but dontcha know all democracies

practice total war when they don't have to.

[Karmadillo]

28. "Rarely does international politics present a moment of such moral clarity."

[TMIK]

29. I am new here but...

When it comes to economics? We will probably never agree. When it comes to children falling from the sky. When it comes too kids at the border. I bet we can. It's about all of us opening are hearts and seeing the greater good. That's why I joined DU tonight. and I bet a lot of you will disagree with a lot of my opinions (it's never personal) but that is what debate is all about. I look forward, now being a member, to respond to many of the things I've read here over the last year.

[madaboutharry]

30. You might want to invest in a Hazmat suit.

It's gets messy around here.

[Rhiannon12866]

31. Welcome to DU, TMIK!

We're glad to have you with us!

[octoberlib]

33. You might want to read the Terms of Service

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=termsofservice

[ladjf]

51. .... And don't forget, the U.S. if funding a large part of the

Israeli military. nt

[Mosby]

53. not really

Israel spends about 15.5 billion dollars per year on the military, about 3 billion comes from the US.

[cali]

55. that would be a lot. obviously. close to 20%. good fucking grief.

[procon]

52. Chris Hayes is covering this now

He's questioning some Israeli spokesman RE: the bombing of hospitals. Evidently bombing is a justified action if the 'collateral damage' is relatively minimal... what does that mean???

Hayes called him out by pointing out the so called school which he claimed that Hamas was using to store missiles, was actually an abandoned building that had not been used as a school for years.

[4now]

56. Sick and disgusting that our country is paying for this.

Its just pathetic that some people try to justify this.