Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Another Hospital Surrounded By Fighting In Northern Gaza
AP: Israel-Hamas War: Fighting Breaks Out Around Another Gaza Hospital
Heavy fighting erupted Monday around a hospital in northern Gaza where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks, as Israeli forces focus on clearing medical facilities that they say Hamas militants use for cover. A shell struck the second floor of the Indonesian Hospital, killing at least 12 people, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza and a medical worker inside the facility. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. (Jobain and Magdy, 11/20)
Meanwhile, patients, staff leave Gaza's biggest hospital —
Reuters: Humanitarian Team Describes Al Shifa Hospital As 'Death Zone'
A humanitarian assessment team visited Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza and saw signs of shelling and gunfire in what was described as a "death zone," the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday. The WHO-led team, which included public health experts, logistics officers and security staff from various U.N. departments, was able to spend only an hour inside the hospital on Saturday due to security concerns, WHO said in a statement. (11/19)
Associated Press: Patients, Staff Leave Gaza's Biggest Hospital; Dozens Killed At Camp
Hundreds of patients, medical staff and people displaced by Israel’s war against Hamas left Gaza’s largest hospital Saturday, with one evacuee describing a panicked and chaotic scene as Israeli forces searched and face-scanned men among those leaving and took some away. ...Elsewhere in northern Gaza, dozens of people were killed in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp when what witnesses described as an Israeli airstrike hit a crowded U.N. shelter in the main combat zone. (Jobain, Mroue and Magdy, 11/18)
The New York Times: Gaza Infants Evacuated From Al-Shifa Hospital
Four days after it was seized by Israeli troops, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital has become a “death zone,” the World Health Organization said, as 31 premature babies in extremely precarious health there were evacuated on Sunday. Emergency medical workers from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the W.H.O., a United Nations agency, transported the babies by ambulance from the hospital, Al-Shifa in Gaza City, to the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital in the city of Rafah, about 25 miles away in southern Gaza. (Yee, Shankar, Kershner, and Levenson, 11/19)
Also —
CBS News: New Jersey Health Care Workers Call For Protection Of Hospitals In Gaza
Health care workers in New Jersey are calling for the protection of hospitals in Gaza. A surgeon who worked at Al-Shifa Hospital this past summer says she's still in contact with many of her colleagues, who say they are under siege. "Despite a shortage of medical supplies and ... antiseptics, they preserved immense challenges, such as lack of electricity, oxygen and water," she said. (11/18)
