of welcome back to the electronic intofada podcast, i'm nora barrow's friedman with tamara nasar. today we're taking a look at israel's relentless attacks on hospitals and medical workers in gaza. we're especially focusing on the situation. at nasir hospital in hanyunus. according to the palestinian health ministry on thursday, israeli forces attacked the hospital and ordered patients, staff and displaced people sheltering in the hospital complex outside into adjacent buildings. the health ministry said that israeli forces ordered officials at nasa hospital to move 95 health personnel, 11 of their families, 191 patients and 165 companions. and displaced people an old

building adjacent to the hospital in harsh and frightening conditions, without food, without milk for children and an acute water shortage. dr. khalid al sir sent these voice messages to us on thursday: since yesterday there is lot of updates uh about what happening here in nor hospital, there was a direct... bombing to the hospital, they forced people inside the hospital, including patients related, oh ya allah, patient relatives and healthcare workers to evacuate immediately, and you can hear in the background the continuous bombing in the hospital, this comes after a week of intensifying attacks on the hospital and its grounds with armed israeli quadcopters shooting at patients, doctors, and hospital

staff and israeli armored vehicles destroying parts of the wall around the complex. early thursday morning israeli forces shelled the of patient ward at nasa hospital. dr. alser sent us this video of doctors scrambling to move their patients out in the immediate aftermath of the bombing. now on friday the palestinian health ministry reports that quote three patients died in intensive care as a result of the power outage and the cessation of oxygen in the nasar medical complex. two women gave birth

in inhumane conditions without electricity, water, food and heating, and fourth patient at nasa was murdered as a result of the cessation of electrical generators and the cessation of oxygen at dawn on friday. israeli occupation forces forced men, women and children to move from the old nasa building without luggage to the maternity building which they turned into a military barracks, that was from the health ministry on friday morning. joining us to talk about the current situation at nasa hospital and israel's systematic and relentless targeting of hospitals across gaza is dr. mads gilbert. of mads is a norwegian physician who for years has worked alongside doctors and nurses in gaza. dr. mads, welcome back to the electronic intefada podcast. thank you so much under dire conditions, but still good to see you. thanks uh to you so much as well. um, mads, you've been in touch with dr. and

medical staff at nasa hospital over the last week, give us a sense of what they're dealing with. i mean, we we just saw those images of patients being ordered to evacuate, others lined up on their gernies in the corridor of an older building, and of course we've heard the reports of quadcopters shooting anyone who moves inside the hospital and and in the courtyard near the entrance to the emergency department. what is going on here and what are you hearing from your colleagues there? actually, what's this? what is going on in nasar hospital is pretty much the same that's been going on in almost all the palestini hospitals and healthcare units, also the primary healthcare system for the last four months. this is nadir, very low point in this long array of israeli systematic attacks on healthcare, on healthcare providers, on patients. on companions to the patients and

on the thousands and thousands of forcefully displaced palestinians who have been seeking refuge and safety, some kind of safety. in their hospitals, so what we're seeing at nasar now is the culmination of a systematic operation mode by the israeli occupation army, which actually has the goal of dismantling healthcare in gaza as it has been working for the last 20 years and destroying it completely, and with that destruction comes of course the the lack of uh medical capacity for the wounded and for those with common diseases, for the pregnant women, as we heard, and it is a systematic way of attacking the palestinian people, and all these claims about you, now the claim was

operatives and hostages, so far we haven't seen any proof of that, as we didn't see in shifa or in the cancer hospital, in the turkish friendship hospital or rantissi hospital. so what the heroic palestinian healthcare workers in nasa hospital have been reporting is actually that they have been continuing to treat patients in patients and patients who were brought to them despite of the seach of nasar hospital that has been going on for i guess the better part of three weeks with surrounding tanks threats shooting targeting quadrocopters and then finally the last few days snipers shooting through the windows of the the the rooms in the hospital and even shooting into the icu and into the doctor's room and into anywhere where there are human beings, so they have been continuing their work, um, some of them left

yesterday, some of them were shot at during the evacuation, not evacuation, but when they left the hospital, presumably through the... safe roots that israel is lying about and some are still in the hospital and i'd like to read to you the text that accompanied that movie, that little video you showed of the overcrowded corridors in this building to which the palestinians have been forced to evacuate the patients and the staff, which is by the way the oldest part of nasa medical complex, and he says in this message, situation now at nasar hospital, all of the patients and healthcare workers were displaced to one department, one other buildings have been invaded by soldiers, we can hear the shooting and bombings everywhere, and then he continues and he finish up saying, please stop this madness,

stop this war, this is hospital facility, not a battlefield, unquote, that's the appeal of... extremely brave medical doctor among the the thousands of brave healthcare personnel in gaza who have never yielded and never left their patients, so my point is that it's horrible and the most horrible thing about what is going on nasar hospital now is that this has been going on for four months without no power stopping it, so i don't know, i think this really is with the... unity, they just keep going, because no military force or political force or international alliance of decent nations are able to stop them, the only one can stop them is is united states and they don't want to stop them, they continue to supply them with

political support and weapons, so this madness is a result of deliberate politics deliberate policy from the united states and unfortunately also. from many of the the european governments, yeah, so um, so i am extremely anxious about the fate of these remaining patients and medical staff, it's it's unconstionable what we're seeing and hearing from nasa and and around, and and as you said, it's a microcosm of what's happening all over gaza, um, can you talk about the incident on when? day where a detained palestinin man was sent by the israeli army to deliver their orders to evacuate the hospital, this man was dressed in personal protective equipment, his hands were tied, and then after they were done with him with using their human shield

essentially, the israelis executed him on the spot, the intercept had this article about that incident, and it also included a video, i think we can we can show that, so... happen today is a completely trap, completely trap, they send the hostage with cough hands to the hospital asking him to tell us that we should evacuate. and when people started really evacuating, they open fire and they shooted at the people and they killed the hostage also that already sent by the idf at the gate the hospital. dr. mads, i mean we didn't see any western media cover uh, you major corporate western media cover what happened to that detained man who was sent by the israeli. uh to deliver their order to to evacuate and then was sumarily executed. um,

what do you make of this? what, what, how, how, how, how did this happen? well, i think it is in many ways, we we should maybe not be shocked, but when you look at the individual level how the israelis are treating the palestinians, you get this sickening feeling of racist. and a disregard for human life that you you you would not believe existed in our time a a one to one level, mean using a f35 to fly over gaza and do some pinpoint or or just bomb dropping, you're not looking in the eyes of the other person, the other human, but this guy, he was forced at gun point to go and tell his fellow palestinians, you have to evacuate, and one thing you did not comment was that ironically they had put yellow band on his head and for those who

knows history is of course the yellow color and the yellow star used to be the way the nazis were marking the juice if you had that yellow star you were doomed so i don't why they put that yellow ban on his head but to me that has very dark symbolism he tries to convince his fellow palest. i have message, you have to leave, and this is, don't forget this is after days and days of shouting from loudspeakers and from the the the drones with loudspeakers, and we've seen videos how they call them out as animals and dirty, whatever, you know, the israelies, they shout to the people nasar, very derogating, very, shameful naming of them, and then they send this, this pray... palestinian in and it's a human shield, he comes back and they kill him, so

if anybody dares tell me that israeli army, the occupation army are not killers and murderers, you know, just look at this one situation, and it has to me a greater ramification and symbolism, it is that they don't, they don't their face sort of a man to man or woman. to woman situation, they they handcuff you, they they undress you, they force you to creep on the floor. i just got a message from from young palestinian medical student that his father was released right now today, another brilliant palestinian doctor who has been working with fairless risking his life for four months, he's a colleague of mine, known him for 15 years, he was arrested three days ago, they released him today, and they had tortured him, like

they have tortured so many of our colleagues while being in prison or in the concentration camp. this total disregard for for human life, this lack of respect for others than themselves, is i think one of the the the main um, one of the main "i i don't like the word challenge, but the huge problem that we're facing is actually how the western world with the united states as the leader and the eu governments and the canadians and the australians, until was it yesterday, have been supporting this massive israeli racism and colonialism against the palestinian people, day by day. knowing what is going on, seeing the videos on social media, and don't

tell me that the deep state that state department and intelligence in the united states doesn't know every single one of these incidents and they accept it and they continue to support israel, and that's why i i say that this is this may be very disturbing illustration on on what has been called necropolitics by ashil member. so we may discuss later, but i'd like to point to another fact, this is a report that came out today, actually, it's from the who and... it is summing up the number of attacks on healthcare in gaza from the 7th of october until the uh 12th of february few days ago and there has been not one, not two, not 10, there has been 378 attacks on healthcare in

gaza by the israeli occupation army through these months, almost 400 attacks. it's 100 attack per month on average and 659 people have been killed during these attacks on healthcare and among them are as we know 340 healthcare workers and then 319 civilians like the ones who have been killed in nasa hospital and i want to underline this point because this don't make nasa hospital a sort of a special case. right, it's like human memory has been reduced down to not a week but two days, this has been going on for four months for heaven sake, the un has known it, all the foreign departments of the of the world has known it, and only one state, republic of south africa had the bravery and the courage and the decency to stand up and say stop it and go to the icj and demand a

stop, and there is no white government in the western world. to my knowledge that has supported the rs case in the icj, it's only governments from the global south, so even that step to try to control these crimes against humanity and this genocide has not been supported by the western government, what are they, what's happening, are we entering into a new dark era of neocolonialism, i fear that's what we're seeing, and just to to... report a little bit more on this, it's a very good graph, it's actually summing up the attacks in every one the four governates in gaza, and how many hospitals? i'm sorry, five governorates and how many hospitals have been damaged and how many hospitals are out of function, but don't forget that 659 staff, patients and civilians

have been killed during 378 israeli attacks on health care facilities, the primary healthcare sector in gaza is almost down to zero, there has been you know so many attacks on the clinics and they are almost all of them out of function, they have destroyed almost ambulances and they have closed down most of the hospitals, only um six, i believe are now... working three in the north and three or four in the south, but these numbers are are changing every day, and one more documentation is the right to health report from who, and this is the report from 2022, and they have a special chapter which is called health attacks. if you think this number 378 during the four month of this

attack is special, just read this report, they are reporting you know every single attack, and from 2019 to 2021 who is reporting 563 attacks on palestinian healthcare in gaza and the west bank right, so thousands of attacks going, unpunished impunity, absolutely no consequences for the israeli occupation forces, these attacks, and every time i go to gaza, whether it's during bombing or in between when we do the research or teach or... have projects in training people, i get this same sense as you describe of very, very deep compassion for life, a compassion for serving others almost like, i'm a marxist, i'm i'm a socialist, i'm a left-winger, i'm, you know, i've always been that, and and my my urge to use medicine as a

tool of justice for uprights and to side up with the people fighting against injustice. always been part of my my determination as doctor, but to come to gaza and to the west bank and to see how these colleagues of mine in all different specialties and and and professional positions, how they serve their people is a reminder to me that you don't have to live in a in a well of western capitalist. country in order to to give to give from your professionalism because you're well fed and you're you know you're in a safe position and you have everything. need so you have this little extra to be an activist or social entrepreneur or anything in gaza and in the west bank it's it's this huge deep

rooted dedication to serve their people you could call it the medical samood or you could call it the medical persistence or you could go back to to rudolf who was a european pathologist who died in 1901 and he was the the f of public health as a specialty in medicine, and he was very pronounced, he said that politics and medicine are two sides of the same thing, it's about society and the conditions, the living conditions for people, and he also said that the doctor should be the advocate of the poor, the doctor should be the advocate of the poor, because that's where the healthcare workers are needed, it's not needed for the rich people who can buy a private plane and go to a private clinic and whatever. anywhere in the world, they always manage, but for the majority people, the healthcare workers are so important as their servants, and as somebody who sides up with

them and choose side with them, and to me the deepest ethics and ethos of medicine is to side up with those who need you, not to be neutral, not to stand on the outside and say, "i will not comment on the politics of this, i will not comment of..." the israeli armies attack on hospital, i will only comment on this and this patient, fine, but then you are not serving as an advocate of the less fortunate, you have to choose side, neutality, neutrality in a position of oppression being executed against a large numbers of people or even in a one to one situation, neutrality will end you on the side of the oppressor, as said "the famous bishop from south africa, and and this neutrality of medicine is fake. medicine should actively choose side with the less

fortunate, with the oppressed, with the occupied, with the bombed ones and say, we are on your side, we will stay with you, we will not abandon you, and we will even risk our lives to serve you, and that's what we see in gaza, and i'm i'm immensely touched by the courage and the..." human dignity of the healthcare workers, and i want to mention one person who is often not mentioned, and that is dr. yousf aburish, he is the minister of health in gaza, few people even know his name, i've known k known him for 12, 13 years, and he's been the minister of health for the last 12 years, i think, he's a pediatrician, he's quite young, he's married, he has, i believe five kids, and he is an extremely warm. human being and he's one of my absolute role models in this world, he has been on call for four months, night and day,

never left his position as the leader of this incredibly brutally attacked healthcare system, and every time i talk to him, he has not given up, but he asked the question, how can this be allowed to go on, not all? has israel completely destroyed several hospitals, not a single hospital in gaza out the 36 remains fully functional, there are some that are partially functional, there are some that are barely functional, but not a single one out of the 36 remains fully functional, but something dr. abasitte said that really stayed with me is that not only is israel systematically targeting medical facilities, but they are targeting medical professionals and israel's objective in targeting medical professionals is to cripple

the health sector by killing an entire generation of doctors to the extent that building the hospitals after the genocide would not even suffice to restore the health sector. mean it's it's such an unspeakable thing um, but this is... all part of israel's goal to make ghaza completely uninhabitable and compelling palestinians to leave the gaza strip, which is one of israel's ultimate war goal, war goals. um, and i'm deeply troubled to to pose this question to you, dr. mads, but which doctors that you know of that israel has killed, whose expertise and experience are nearly irreplaceable, especially. within such a time frame, and what are the repercussions of decimating an entire health system in this way? i mean, we

don't have... many precedents that we can compare this to, this week on expos a, the israeli entity assault on rafah was depicted as successful. rescue operation, masking its true nature as a direct attack on one of the few remaining safe zones for palestinian civilians in gaza. within zianist israeli media circles, prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been accused of deceat regarding his claims of targeting hamas and freeing all hostages. moreover, a staggering 97% of arab respondents reported experiencing psychological distress during the gaza conflict with 92% expressing the...

belief that the palestinian cause is not soly a concern for palestinians, but for all arabs. expose, the truth is just a revelation away. in this week's episode of iran. we're finally stepping inside the tehran research reactor. we've already featured some of the radio isotopes that have been produced here, but now we're taking a closer look at what happens inside the core of the reactor and how we procure the fuel for the reactor. don't miss it.

your headlines on press the v israeli forces storm nasa hospital in southern gaza as the regime's unrelenting air strikes claim more civilian lives across the territory. the top un court holds the fifth day of public hearings on israel's decades-long occupation of palestinian territory. and yemenese hold yet another weekly valley in solidarity with palestinians facing israeli genocide in gaza.