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STORY: WHO / GAZA AL SHIFA HOSPITAL
TRT: 05:27
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 21 MAY 2025, AL SHIFA MEDICAL COMPLEX, NORTH GAZA
1. Wide shot, the busy hospital entrance
2. Wide shot, busy emergency department, with health workers, patients, a small body being bought in under a bloodied white shroud
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Mohamad Abu Sulmeyeh, Director, Al-Shifa Medical Complex:
“After the hospitals in northern Gaza were completely out of service, there are now no medical services in northern Gaza. The burden on Al-Shifa Medical Complex has become heavy. We are receiving a large number of cases from northern Gaza in a very difficult situation. The bed capacity in Al-Shifa Medical Complex is very low. It cannot accommodate this large number of wounded and sick people. We receive between 500 and 600 patients daily in the emergency department. The hospital wards are completely insufficient for this large number of wounded and sick people. Therefore, we are facing a real danger to these patients and wounded.”
4. Medium shot, a patient on a hospital bed being examined by medical staff
5. Wide shot, Dr Harara walks up to the hospital bed
6. SOUNDUP (Arabic):
Dr Harara : Yes Mohammad? What’s the situation?
Dr Mohammad: ***Unclear***
Dr Hara: Brain matter?
Dr Mohammad: No not brain matter, only GCS5 (Glasgow Coma Scale 5)
Dr Hara: Okay, fine. What about his blood pressure and pulse?
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Moataz Harara, Supervising Physician, Emergency Department, Al Shifa Medical Complex:
“Of course plenty of wounded people went to the Al-Ahli Baptist hospital, and as they can’t handle this huge load, injuries started coming to Al-Shifa Hospital and also as you know, the north went out of medical service due to the lack of basically everything; beds, medical departments, that can handle this huge number of incoming injuries; we are here working in the “ field hospital” but people are literally on the ground as beds already occupied, and full from before. Every day the emergency departments are overwhelmed and packed to their extreme limit; and that’s all due to the lack of basics supplies, unavailable hospital wards, consumables are gone, chest tube are completely unavailable at the Ministry of Health, we also need way too many medical supplies, that we didn’t manage to get since the war resumed. This, of course, has exacerbated many cases due to the lack of quick processing and response to cases. Most medical equipment is worn out and, of course, broken.”
8. Wide shot, a patient on being bought into the Emergency department on a gurney
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Moataz Harara, Supervising Physcian, Emergency Department, Al Shifa Medical Complex:
“There’s a case that needs medical attention, but due to the number of injuries and the lack of beds where we use to have such cases given closer medical attention, we are now forced to place the patient in between other two patients in the intensive care unit, so we can provide the necessary healthcare.”
10. Wide shot, a patient on being transferred from a gurney to a bed
11. Wide shot, busy corridor with hospital beds, patients and companions
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmad AL-Buri, Patient, Al Shifa Medical Complex:
“I woke up to find myself in the corridor, I looked around, people are coming and going. I asked “Where am I?” they told me that I was moved to the corridor after the surgery was complete. I asked, where’s the room why am not in a room? There are no rooms, not even bathrooms they have set me up with an internal urine bag, so I don’t move at all.”
13. Wide shot, health workers tending to Ahmad’s injuries
14. Medium shot, a patient on a hospital bed, breathing with an oxygen mask
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Abdul Karim Jamal, Emergency Department, Indonesian Hospital, now at Al Shifa Medical Complex:
“Today we are working at Al-Shifa Hospital due to the recent invasion into the northern Gaza Strip, Gaza City. Note that Al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital are the only two hospitals currently operating in the Gaza Strip. Most of the cases that were displaced or evacuated from the northern Gaza Strip come to these hospitals, so we at the Indonesian Hospital or Kamal Adwan Hospital were distributed to these hospitals. As you can see, today we arrived at after the bombing in Old Gaza Street.”
16. Medium shot, an injured patient on a hospital bed
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Father of an injured patient:
“We in the Northen Gaza strip, have an extremely frighteningly bad situation, the gauze, this gauze, we can’t even find it in Al-Shifa hospital to treat our children, elderly and youth. Youth are dying due to the lack of blood, from lack of treatment, from lack of medicines.”
18. Medium shot, Alaa Al Ghafeer, placing a young patients arm ready for an X-ray
19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Alaa Al Ghafeer, Imaginging technician, Al Shifa Medical Complex:
“Of course, previously we had two x-ray machines daily, serving approximately 300 patients, in addition to the MRI machine. Currently, it is completely unavailable at Al-Shifa Medical Complex. We only have a regular x-ray machine. Of course, if it stops, we will lose the service completely.”
20. Medium shot, Alaa Al Ghafeer, taking an X-ray
Israel’s intensified military operations continue to threaten Gaza’s already weakened health system, amid worsening mass displacement and acute shortages of food, water, medical supplies, fuel, and shelter. Al-Shifa Hospital is overwhelmed with patients following the closure of hospitals in northern Gaza.
It is operating beyond capacity and running critically low on supplies. Amid constant fear and insecurity, health workers - including national and international emergency medical teams - continue to provide urgent care to the people of Gaza.
