Israeli army forces doctors at Gaza's Nasser Hospital to strip naked in the cold, witness says, while IDF says Hamas members arrested there
Nasser Medical Complex was until last week Gaza's largest operating hospital. (Credit: Abed Zagout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
After Israeli forces forced doctors and other health professionals to leave Nasser Hospital in Gaza to strip down and wait for hours in the cold, the army allowed five doctors to return to the building to treat patients. On Monday, the Israeli military announced the arrest of hundreds of Hamas militants in hospitals, some posing as doctors.
According to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), they also found medicine inside the hospital bearing the names of Israeli hostages, and soldiers released a video showing the medicine boxes with inscriptions and sometimes photographs. to do
The witness spoke to CNN in a rare phone interview from the Nasser hospital complex, which has few means of communication with the outside world.
The source recounted that when the IDF took control of the hospital last week, they broadcast a message saying, “Doctors, come out.”
When the doctors came out and ordered them to undress, they protested against the cold.
“Take off your clothes,” they ordered the medics, according to the witness.
The doctors were then stripped of their clothes in the cold and left outside for several hours before Israeli troops chose five doctors to return to the compound and tend to the patients. The witness does not know what happened to the other doctors.
About 150 patients were treated by five doctors in the old building of the complex, the witness said.
A witness inside the hospital asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.
The source indicated that the hospital had no electricity and patients were dying every day due to Israel's siege of the hospital.
He also said that the atmosphere was filled with the smell of rotting bodies. “Four patients died in recent days and forces [israelíes] They did not allow patients to be taken out of the building and the stench was very unpleasant,” said the witness.
Food and water are scarce, he said. When World Health Organization (WHO) officials arrived on Saturday, ”We said: 'If you don't bring food and water, we will die',” the witness added.
Later, WHO brought some water and canned goods like tuna, but no carbohydrates like bread or rice, the witness said. “They are [los pacientes] You cannot eat this without bread,” he added.
On Sunday, WHO evacuated 14 patients who needed oxygen.
Nasser was Gaza's largest surgical hospital before the IDF raid last week.
Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that about 70 health workers were arrested by Israeli forces at the medical complex and 80 patients were transferred from the hospital to an unknown location.
The IDF did not immediately respond to CNN's query that medical staff were forced to strip in the cold, but the account is similar to reports from other Gaza hospitals where Israeli troops have been admitted.
