Al-Shifa: According to WHO, the Gaza hospital is unable to bury the deceased

 Al-Shifa: According to WHO, the Gaza hospital is unable to bury the deceased

Due to close fighting, thousands may be stuck inside Gaza's main hospital, and authorities have issued a warning about the possibility of rotting dead stacking up inside.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning that Al-Shifa Hospital is "nearly a cemetery" and is dealing with power outages and a fuel shortage.

The manager of the hospital said that there was a "blockade" in place and that dogs were now consuming bodies.

There has been a lot of violence in the vicinity of the hospital recently.

Joe Biden, the US President, expressed his wish for "less intrusive action" at the hospital, saying it "must be protected".

Fighting between Israeli and Hamas troops has increased in Gaza City in recent days, with much of it occurring in the streets near the hospital. Tanks and other armored vehicles have reportedly been seen a few meters from the hospital entrance.

Israel accuses Hamas, which both Hamas and the hospital deny, of running a command and control center in tunnels under the hospital. Additionally, Hamas, the organization in charge of the Gaza Strip, is charged with "preventing humanitarian solutions".

Additionally, the Israeli army has said that while there are fighting near Al-Shifa, there is neither a siege nor gunfire at the hospital and that anybody who wishes to escape is free to do so.

Around 600 patients were still in the hospital, according to Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokeswoman, with more patients taking refuge in the halls.

"Around the hospital there are deceased individuals which cannot be taken care of or not even be buried or moved away to any sort of morgue," he said. "The hospital is no longer operating as it should at all. It resembles a graveyard."

At least 2,300 individuals are reportedly still inside the hospital, including up to 650 patients, 200–500 staff members, and around 1,500 others looking for refuge, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

At the hospital, corpses have also been reported to be piling up and decaying. According to Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmia, manager of Al-Shifa, around 150 bodies were "leaving unpleasant odours" as they decomposed.

He informed the BBC that dogs had now entered the hospital grounds and were consuming the dead, and that the Israeli authorities still had not given permission for the bodies to be taken out of the hospital and buried.

Concerns exist on what will happen to the several dozen preterm newborns who are unable to remain in their incubators as a result of the power outages.

According to Dr. Selmia, the shortage of oxygen has caused the deaths of seven of those newborns.

He stated that attempts to remove the newborns had been discussed with Israeli officials, but no agreement had been made.

Israel was providing "practical solutions" to remove the infants, according to Mark Regev, a top advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Hamas was allegedly rejecting the offers.

"The gasoline that was given for their generators is not taken by them. "They're stuck there because [Hamas] want those horrible photographs, so of course they don't support the movement of babies out in ambulances," he added. Additionally, by digging tunnels under the hospital, he charged Hamas of converting it "into a war zone". While hospital staff members maintain there is no Hamas presence there, Hamas disputes utilizing the facility for its activities.

In addition to Al-Shifa, several hospitals in the Gaza Strip have reported extensive problems, such as a shortage of electricity and supplies as a result of fighting and the embargo Israel has imposed since Hamas began its strikes on Israel on October 7.