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Norwegian anesthesia and emergency physician Mads Gilbert, who worked at Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip for 16 years, said that Israel was unable to provide any evidence to prove the validity of its claims about the presence of a military base in the hospital.
Gilbert stated, in an interview with Anatolia: We have to ask the Israelis if they are sure that there is a military base in Al-Shifa Hospital, where have they been for 16 years? Where is the evidence? where are the pictures?
He added, “I worked in Al-Shifa Hospital for 16 years. I walked everywhere inside it, took pictures and videos, talked to patients and workers, slept in the hospital, and never saw a military base.”
He continued, “Why did the Israeli intelligence service not provide any evidence? This reminds me of the position of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell in the UN Security Council, when he made false allegations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. These are all war lies, and Israel is addicted to lying.”
Gilbert stated that Israel has a long history of attacking hospitals, ambulances, health sector workers, and basic health clinics, indicating that he saw Israel’s attacks on health facilities for the first time when he came to Gaza in 2006.
Targeting hospitals
The Norwegian doctor criticized the Israeli attacks targeting hospitals in Gaza, stressing that any ordinary person with a conscience and conscience does not attack hospitals.
He stressed that the World Health Organization documented more than 100 attacks on facilities providing health services in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during the past three weeks.
He continued, “They not only bombed hospitals, but they also bombed civilians, buildings, schools, mosques, churches, water pipes, fishing boats, and everything related to society, because perhaps they wanted to break the steadfastness of the Palestinians and intimidate them.”
He stated that the only way to protect patients being treated in hospitals is to stop the bombing, provide electricity and water from Israel, and ensure that those in need have free drinking water.
Gilbert pointed out that treatment rooms need lighting, and generators need fuel to provide electricity for respirators, monitoring devices, incubators, and everything else modern medicine needs.
He criticized Israel’s statements that it would transfer patients from Gaza to other areas, saying, “This contradicts international law, and the occupying power may not forcefully displace the people it occupies, or settle its citizens in the territories it occupies.”
Gilbert said that the idea of transferring patients to another place is strange, stressing that this idea is unrealistic.
Collapse
He pointed out that the Indonesian hospital in Gaza was also damaged as a result of the Israeli bombing, indicating that this situation shows that all hospitals in Gaza are on the verge of collapse.
He recalled the warning of Ministry of Health officials that if fuel was not provided to Al-Shifa Hospital today, hospital activities would have to be stopped starting tomorrow morning, and said that Israel had increased bombing operations.
He added, “If you are not killed during the Israeli bombing, they want to scare you from death by starvation, thirst, and bleeding.”
He added, “This is the tactic of the colonial power that is now trying to seize the last opportunity in its colonial settlement project to get rid of the Palestinians and occupy the entire West Bank and Gaza. This is what I fear.”
The doctor expressed his sadness over the Israeli attack on the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza on October 30, indicating that he had previously worked with the medical team in this hospital.
He pointed out that the Palestinian health care system and its employees have a great deal of resilience, stressing that the Palestinians never give up, they are determined.
He pointed out that the medical team was able to transform the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital into a hospital that treats all cancer patients in Gaza.
Regarding the Israeli attacks, he said, “What kind of people are these people who try to drag people into hunger and thirst? Then they bombed civilians, the defenseless, and the hospital. I spoke with my colleagues this morning. They destroyed a large part of the city and the Turkish hospital, and Israeli tanks can be seen outside.”
He stated, “In my opinion, this is not just a war crime, but rather a crime against humanity, a crime against the basic values that we must all have.”
He explained, “Whether we are Muslims, Christians, Jews, or atheists, we must protect and save every person, because every person’s life is sacred.”
He added, “European leaders and President (Joe) Biden are completely silent, or worse, support Israeli demands.”
Complicity and silence
Regarding Biden’s skepticism about the death toll announced by the Minister of Health in Gaza, Gilbert said, “The Palestinian people are the only people who have to prove that they were killed. They have to prove that they died.”
He explained, “I was shocked by the complicity and silence on the part of political leaders in Europe. We are watching the Palestinian genocide, and we are watching mass killing.”
Gilbert confirmed that more than 4,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli war on it on October 7.
He concluded his speech by asking, “Are children and women military targets? Of course not, and yet European leaders sit silently and watch a Palestinian child being killed every 10 minutes. This is a historical shame, this is a disgrace, a great failure for humanity.”
