Chicago-based humanitarian group loses contact with staff at Gaza hospital amid reported siege
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With Israel's military operations in Gaza showing no signs of slowing down, the Palestinian Health Ministry says the health care system in Gaza is on the brink of collapse.
Concerns are growing for a Chicago area-based humanitarian organization currently on ground assisting in medical aid.
MedGlobal, based in Chicago Ridge, has roughly a half dozen staffers working in hosptials in northern Gaza, among them a nurse and pediatrician.
Communication with those workers has been cut off for nearly 48 hours, prompting the organization to renew its calls for a ceasefire to assure the safe evacuation of its staffers and patients.
MedGlobal said it lost communication with its team members stationed at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest hospital, upon hearing the facility was under siege by snipers.
"We've heard that the electricity is out, and that patients in the hospital are not getting the treatment that they need," said Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a board member at MedGlobal.
Ahmad said newborns had to be taken off incubators because there is no power.
Medical personnel with MedGlobal have been working out of 11 hospitals in the area since Israeli military operations began in response to a Hamas attack in Israel.
Working around the clock tending to patients that range from newborns to entire families, MedGlobal officials said their workers have been facing imminent danger alongside their own patients.
"We need to understand that we have to protect the hospitals. Any attack on the medical care at the moment is an attack on humanity," said Dr. Christos Christou, president of Doctors Without Borders.
Evacuations have been deemed impossible, due to what they say are intense sniper attacks targeting anyone who tries to flee from the hospital doors.
"They were coming under fire. There are a pile of bodies at the entrance of Al-Shifa Hospital as a result of people trying to leave," Ahmad said.
Officials are urging for both workers and patients to be evacuated, but Ahmad said it's proving to be easier said than done.
"We have to make sure that the bombs stop dropping; and that the innocent children, women, elderly – that all of them have safe passage, and can at least shelter for one single night," he said.
The concerns of how and when they will be able to evacuate their team out of Gaza safely is a situation that Ahmad said humanitarian organizations across the board are currently dealing with.
"They're essentially just trying to figure out how they can communicate with their staff, but prior to that, how could they get their staff to the south? And a lot of them are being asked to walk. So they're being told, 'If you're going to leave, you need to walk a certain amount of miles – 3 or 4 miles – prior to getting into a vehicle that can take you further south," he said.
Israel, however, has claimed Hamas militants are using Al-Shifa as a command center underground.
Despite reports of Al-Shifa Hospital being under siege, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said there was no siege, and insisted the east side of the hospital was open and safe to pass for anyone wanting to leave the facility.