AS THE fighting raged in Gaza today, the humanitarian crisis facing the Palestinians in the besieged territory deepened.

In Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, a Doctors Without Borders surgeon sent a desperate voice note to his colleagues outside the territory, saying: “We don’t have electricity. There’s no water in the hospital. There’s no food. People will die in a few hours without functioning ventilators.”

The doctor described the intensity of the attacks on the hospital by Israeli forces.

The doctor said: “In front of the main gate there are many bodies, there are also injured patients, we can’t bring them inside. 

“When we sent the ambulance to bring the patients — a few metres away — they attacked the ambulance.

“There’s also a sniper who attacked patients.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today that Israel’s repeated attacks on medical facilities, health personnel and ambulances in Gaza should be “investigated as war crimes.”

“Despite the Israeli military’s claims on November 5 2023, of ‘Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals,’ no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law,” HRW said.

Despite the relentless attacks the dedicated doctors and nurses in al-Shifa have refused to abandon their patients.

The doctor said: “The medical team agreed to leave the hospital only if patients are evacuated first: we don’t want to leave our patients. 

“There are 600 inpatients, 37 babies, someone who needs an ICU, we can’t leave them.”

According to the United Nations humanitarian office, about 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since November 5, as Israeli ground forces battle Palestinian resistance fighters around hospitals where patients, newborns and medics are stranded with their medical carers.

The UN says that only one hospital in the north is capable of receiving patients. All the others, such as al-Shifa, are no longer able to function.

Spain’s Social Rights Minister Ione Belarra said today that “we are witnessing a live genocide by the state of Israel in Palestine.”

Lebanon based journalist Rania Khalek said: “There is no justification for intentionally depriving these helpless infants access to the necessities for sustaining life. 

“You are either for or against genocide. It’s not hard. Which side are you on?”

Nearly 12,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

At least 1,200 people have died on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial surprise Hamas attack on October 7.