At al Shifa Hospital, the human cost of Gaza’s war is laid bare.
Six relatives of its director, Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, including his brother, were among those killed when their home in Gaza City was struck on Saturday.
He was on duty when their bodies were brought to the city’s largest hospital, a place already overwhelmed by casualties and struggling to function after months of bombardment.
Gaza latest: At least 34 killed in overnight strikes
Gaza‘s health authorities say at least 34 people were killed and 200 wounded.
Since October 2023, more than 65,000 have died and over 166,000 have been injured, including more than 1,700 doctors, nurses and paramedics, according to the health ministry.
Head of the emergency department at al Shifa, Dr Mutaz Harara, told Sky News that fear is driving both patients and staff away.
“People no longer feel that the hospital is a safe place; they have lost trust in it, and so they are heading south,” said Dr Harara.
“Even the medical teams themselves have begun to flee in search of shelter and homes for their families.”
He described repeated attacks on Gaza’s hospitals as part of a broader policy: “What has happened at al Shifa, targeting doctors and medical teams, has happened more than once.
“Some colleagues remain in Israeli prisons, some tortured, some martyred. Hospitals have been left exposed, without protection from international law.”
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Australian doctor Nada Abu Alrub had been working at al Aqsa hospital, in central Gaza, before moving north to al Shifa.
In a video shared online on Friday, she said the transfer showed the scale of displacement and the risks of simply reaching the hospital.
What should have been a 20-minute journey took eight hours as her team passed streams of families fleeing south under constant bombardment.
“As soon as we reached, bombing after bombing, with Apache, F-35, F-16… all sorts of weapons attacking us from everywhere around the hospital,” she said.
‘Anyone staying knows they will be killed’
Nada Abu Alrub said the belief that international doctors would be protected had proved false.
“We are doing this video because we know we might die at any moment,” she said, recalling how strikes hit directly outside Shifa’s main entrance multiple times in recent days.
“As internationals, we were told we would be given an evacuation order. No evacuation order was given.”
She added: “Doctors don’t come to work because their family members are dead, or they’ve been told to move south to save themselves. Anyone staying knows they will be killed.”
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Inside, conditions were breaking down to the point of collapse.
Staff had almost no equipment left to work with, even basic supplies such as gloves and soap were gone, and doctors were forced to improvise with whatever remained.
“We are hardly surviving. And hardly able to help anyone,” said the Australian doctor.
Shifa’s history is one of repeated assault and recovery.
After raids and bombardments in late 2023, staff managed to restore some operating rooms, intensive care beds and laboratories. But the World Health Organisation has since described it as “an empty shell” – a facility without reliable power, water, supplies or specialist staff.
Trauma patients ‘treated on the floor’
The same pattern has played out at al Quds Hospital in Tel el Hawa, just southwest of Gaza City, where American nurse Andee Vaughn has been volunteering for three months.
She told Sky News: “Ambulances are running out of fuel, trauma cases are treated on the floor, and even those told to evacuate are struck on the road.”
“It is the same recipe,” she added. “The same thing happened to al Quds back in 2023.”
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That November, the hospital shut down after being attacked, joining several others across Gaza forced to close by bombardment and shortages.
While medics describe collapse, Israel insists its forces are engaged in a major campaign to root out Hamas.
Troops are pressing into Gaza City from several directions, with strikes on districts including Sheikh Radwan and Tel el Hawa.
Commanders say high-rise buildings and tunnel networks used by militants have been destroyed, weapons depots uncovered and fighters killed.
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The army says civilians are being urged to move south and that safe routes are provided.
Avichay Adraee, the army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, said thousands should leave Gaza City to avoid what he called Hamas’s attempts to use them as shields.
“For your safety and your loved ones’ safety, move south,” he warned.
Hamas rejects that explanation, accusing Israel of deliberately targeting hospitals to dismantle Gaza’s health system and force people from their homes.
For those still inside al Shifa and al Quds, such arguments feel remote.
Doctors and nurses say their reality is of wards emptied by strikes, morgues overfilled, corridors crowded with the wounded, and no prospect of safety beyond the next bombardment.
