Arab countries setting up field hospitals for Gazans

(JNS) — Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are in the process of setting up field hospitals on Egyptian soil near Gaza to treat Palestinians.

A Turkish ship arrived at the port of El Arish in North Sinai, carrying about 500 tons of medical equipment and medicines. The equipment is enough for eight field hospitals. Twenty ambulances will be at their disposal to transport the wounded from Gaza.

The UAE is establishing a 150-bed field hospital in the Gaza Strip. Authorities in Dubai are recruiting licensed medical professionals to volunteer. Planes carrying equipment to set up the field hospital have been dispatched to El Arish.

Egypt has already established a hospital nine miles from the Gaza Strip and a Jordanian facility inside the Strip is already treating patients.

On Monday morning, four Qatari Air Force planes arrived at El Arish airport carrying 180 tons of emergency aid to be transported through the Rafah Crossing into Gaza.

France, Italy and Indonesia have deployed hospital ships to the region.

There was fierce fighting in Gaza City on Sunday morning as the IDF closed in on Shifa Hospital, the largest medical center in the Strip and where Hamas has built its main terror headquarters.

On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said it would assist with the evacuation of infants from Shifa Hospital.

“There is no siege, I repeat no siege, on Shifa Hospital. The east side of the hospital is open for the safe passage of Gazans who wish to leave the hospital,” said IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

“We’re speaking directly and regularly with the hospital staff. The staff of Shifa Hospital has requested that tomorrow we will help the babies in the pediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed,” said Hagari.

The IDF announced on Sunday that in addition to Shifa, the military was enabling safe passage by foot and ambulance from Rantisi and Nasser hospitals.

Israel’s military also published an audio recording of a phone call between a senior officer in Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) with the Shifa Hospital manager on Saturday evening, instructing him on how to safely exit the hospital.

The IDF in recent weeks has provided evidence that Hamas uses Shifa and other Gaza hospitals for its operational activities, which are conducted in a massive tunnel system underneath the complexes. The patients at these hospitals are used as human shields and to hide Hamas’s activities.

Israel also has provided evidence that Hamas has stockpiles of fuel and other supplies that it keeps for itself, refusing to share them with Shifa Hospital or the Gaza population.