Rafah, March 24 (RHC)-- At least five wounded Palestinians have died in Gaza's al-Shifa hospital which has been under Israel's siege for six consecutive days.  "Five wounded people besieged by the occupation were hospitalized in al-Shifa Medical Complex for the sixth day in a row without water, food, or health services," the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said on Saturday.

The ministry pointed to "a very bad condition" of the rest of the patients and added that "worms have begun to come out of their wounds."   "The besieged medical teams and patients appeal to all UN institutions and the international community to intervene urgently to save their lives," the ministry explained.

Israel first raided the hospital in Gaza City last November. On March 18, Israeli occupation forces started a new wave of attacks on the medical complex and imposed a siege on it.

Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, has sheltered thousands of Palestinians who fled Israel’s hostilities in northern parts of the territory.

Heavily armed Israeli forces have stormed the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, firing at people inside the complex.
Israel waged the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups of Hamas and Islamic Jihad carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm into the occupied territories in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

According to the Gaza-based health ministry, at least 32,142 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the strikes, and another 74,412 individuals injured.  Tel Aviv has also imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.