Doctors at Al Shifa hospital give a statement on the bomb blast at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. Photo: MOHAMED MASRI / AFP
A international medical charity has condemned the bombing of a hospital in Gaza as 'horrific' and 'brutal'.
Palestinian officials claim Israel is responsible for the missile strike that hit the hospital, killing up to five hundred people.
But the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) categorically denies that. It blames the hospital blast on a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch.
Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) Australia head of programs Simon Eccleshall told Checkpoint it did not matter who was responsible.
"MSF is truly horrified by the brutal mass killing of civilians, and we've been seeing this perpetrated by Hamas in Israel and now the Israeli Defence Force through the indiscriminate bombing of north and south Gaza."
On Sunday, local residents had been warned to evacuate north Gaza and move south, but MSF had observed that there was no safe passage, and no place for people to move to, he said.
"The borders are closed, the bombing is relentless and for people facing the choice of leaving their home for a perilous journey, you can understand why leaving is not possible, particularly for the patients that MSF is trying to save.
"Hospitals cannot be emptied at short notice, and people can't survive without electricity and water."
Eccleshall said he had been talking with a colleague who was working in the hospital's operating theatre at the time and described the ceiling collapsing mid-surgery.
MSF was no longer able to conduct medical activities in the north of Gaza, he said.
"Over the last 10 days we have moved our international staff to the south of Gaza, where they're looking at exiting through the Rafah border crossing if and when that opens up."
This would enable MSF to bring in new medical staff - "ones that are not exhausted" - as well as new supplies to support the immediate needs of the population of Gaza.
There were still a large number of local medical staff providing life-saving support in the hospitals but communication with them was increasingly difficult, he said.
"Many of them leave home to go and work in the hospital each day, wondering whether they'll be able to return to their homes at the end of the day."
MSF was calling for the creation of an aid corridor and protected spaces for Gazan.
"It's about providing a cessation in hostilities to allow life-saving support to come in and to give people passage to a place of safety.
"In Gaza at the moment, there is nowhere that is safe; there is no area where people can safely move to and the suggestion that they leave Gaza for many Palestinians is a very, very difficult ask.
"They don't have any place to go outside Gaza: The borders remain closed, the bombardments by the IDF continue so it seems to be a very bleak prospect for any Gazan over the next few days unless the international community can leverage some change and put some force towards a cessation to the fighting."
Meanwhile, the Federation of Islamic Associations is calling on the government to show the same urgency with the war between Israel and Palestinians as it did with the war in Ukraine.
It says New Zealand should provide immediate humanitarian aid, raise an urgent request at the UN for the cessation of hostilities in Gaza, and request that the UN and International Criminal Court investigate civilian deaths.
The association suggests the government meet with communities in New Zealand to hear their views.
Hundreds attended a vigil in Aotea Square on Wednesday 18 October in support of Gaza. Protestors chanted 'Free Palestine' and waved Palestinian flags. Photo: Lucy Xia / RNZ
