Jerusalem – Saeb Ali al-Tanani, 14, has a tumour in his leg. Final Wednesday, Suhaila, his grandmother, was with him as he wheeled himself down the hall at Makassed Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem.
“He has to do genetic and blood exams, so he will probably be right here some time,” Suhaila mentioned, whereas remembering their household in Gaza. “Our hearts break for what our household are going by means of in Gaza.”
Saeb echoed his grandmother’s worries. “We’re scared for our household,” he advised Al Jazeera. “I wish to return to my residence.”
A day later, worry would come to hang-out the hospital itself.
On Thursday, Israeli forces arrested Suhaila. She is one in all 12 Palestinians in detention who have been both receiving therapy at Makassed Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem, or have been performing as medical chaperones for sufferers.
In keeping with an announcement by the Israeli police, the Palestinians have been staying “illegally” on the hospital, after their medical permits, issued by the Israeli navy, expired.
“In a joint operation by the Jerusalem District Police and Jerusalem safety guard troopers, 12 feminine and male suspects residing illegally in Israel have been recognized and arrested,” the police mentioned in an announcement, including that the deputy director of the hospital was additionally summoned for interrogation.
“Of those, 11 residents of the Gaza Strip are suspected of remaining within the hospital over the previous few weeks in violation of the regulation, and the opposite suspect is a Palestinian who [is] residing in Israel illegally.”
4 males and 7 ladies from Gaza have been arrested, the assertion mentioned.
تغطية صحفية:”جانب من اقتحام قوات الاحتلال مستشفى المقاصد في بلدة الطور بالقدس المحتلة”. pic.twitter.com/Ux5gV5YrpB
— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) November 2, 2023
(Translation: [Israeli] occupation forces storming Al-Makassed Hospital within the city of al-Tur in occupied Jerusalem.)
Samira Aweina, a hospital attendant at Makassed, mentioned dozens of Israeli police and troopers raided the hospital on Thursday.
“All of them got here in without delay, and instantly sealed off the opposite entrances,” she mentioned.
“They arrested a gaggle of aged ladies from the emergency room with the younger kids they have been with,” she continued. “They arrested one in all our affected person’s father, and one other affected person’s grandmother.”
Qaddoura Fares, the top of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Fee for the Palestinian Authority (PA), advised Al Jazeera that the PA didn’t have any data on these arrested.
“The occupation authorities didn’t present us or the Purple Cross any particulars concerning the detainees from Gaza,” he mentioned, talking from the occupied West Financial institution metropolis of Ramallah. “We don’t even know the place they’re being held or what their names are.”
Normally, Israel offers the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross (ICRC) with the names of Palestinians it has arrested. The Purple Cross in flip informs the PA. The function of the ICRC usually consists of visiting detainees and restoring contact between relations.
‘I would like Mama and Baba’
Different sufferers and their accompanying family members mentioned they’re caught in limbo, unable to go residence, and compelled to remain on the hospital.
Imm Taha al-Farra is together with her nine-year-old granddaughter Hala, who underwent a spinal operation on October 7.
“We have been supposed to return after a couple of days,” Imm Taha mentioned. “We will’t return now. We don’t know something. How are we supposed to return?”
Hala, who mentioned she desires to be a physician in order that she will deal with kids, has been asking to go residence for weeks.
“I would like Mama and Baba,” she mentioned. “I miss my brothers Omar and Ali.”
Their household stay in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Imm Taha mentioned the households of her nieces and nephews, all 16 members, have been killed in an Israeli air raid on their residence.
One other affected person, Mahdiya al-Shanti, has additionally been within the hospital for greater than a month.
“I used to be imagined to go residence in the direction of the tip of October, however now I can’t due to the battle,” the 20-year-old from northern Gaza mentioned.
“It’s laborious to understand how my household is doing on a regular basis as a result of the web cuts off and generally they will’t cost their telephones,” she continued. “They fled the north to Khan Younis however since there’s no secure place in Gaza it’s like they went from one hazard zone to a different.”
Mahdiya’s father had accompanied her as a medical chaperone. He too was amongst these arrested by Israeli forces final Thursday.
Mahdiya mentioned that the forces stormed the hospital and barged into sufferers’ rooms and the rooms the place the medical chaperones keep.
“They mentioned they have been searching for anybody from Gaza,” she mentioned.
She shortly despatched a message to her dad, who was in a kind of rooms, warning him that the Israeli forces have been round. But it surely was too late.
“I don’t know the place they’ve taken him,” Mahdiya mentioned. “How can they do that in a hospital? Now I’m on their own and sick with fear. My household is in Gaza, my father is lacking, and I’m a affected person right here all on my own.”
Hospital keep within the steadiness
There are six Palestinian hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem providing medical specialties that the Palestinian well being ministry is unable to offer within the occupied West Financial institution and Gaza Strip.
In keeping with Medical Help for Palestinians (MAP), greater than 50 % of sufferers in these hospitals are referred from the occupied territories.
Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital was established in 1968 and included 60 beds. The hospital continued to increase, and now has 250 beds, making it the primary referral hospital for the Palestinian group in Jerusalem, the West Financial institution and the Gaza Strip.
In keeping with the administration of the Makassed Hospital, there have been 53 sufferers from the Gaza Strip, every with one chaperone from their household, when the Israeli safety forces raided the establishment. The hospital, which mentioned it was not authorised to provide statements on the Thursday raid to the media, declined to say how lots of the Gaza sufferers and chaperones remained.
Medical doctors have spoken concerning the worry of reprisals in the event that they converse – together with the prospect of arrests or shedding their jobs.
As for the sufferers from Gaza, their nervousness over what’s occurring to their households within the coastal enclave is compounded by their very own unfamiliar state of affairs.
Nafez al-Qahwaji, who was referred to the Makassed Hospital by the Nasser Medical Complicated in Khan Younis, spent three days within the hospital earlier than the battle started.
“The Israeli intelligence known as my quantity and advised me to evacuate my residence in Khan Younis,” al-Qahwaji mentioned. “I known as my kids instantly and advised them to depart the home for worry that it might be focused. Now they’re sheltering at a UN college.”
Al-Qahwaji declined to reveal what he was getting handled for, and initially thought he would solely keep for every week or two.
“I don’t have acceptable garments now that winter is coming,” he mentioned. “I don’t understand how I’ll return residence if Erez is destroyed,” he added, referring to the Israeli checkpoint in northern Gaza that’s also referred to as the Beit Hanoon crossing.
(Linah Alsaafin reported from London, United Kingdom)
