安全と信じていたのに…市民が多数避難していた病院も攻撃に ガザ

【パレスチナ自治区ＡＦＰ＝時事】イスラム組織ハマスが実効支配するパレスチナ自治区ガザ地区では、イスラエルによる爆撃が絶え間なく続く中、病院が多数の市民の避難所となっていた。ガザ中心部の病院の攻撃はそうした中で起きた。（写真はパレスチナ自治区ガザ南部ハンユニスのナセル病院の敷地内で避難生活を送る人々）
　１７日夜のアフリアラブ病院に対する攻撃では、ガザの保健当局によれば、少なくとも２００人が死亡した。
　攻撃について、保健当局はイスラエルによるものと非難。一方のイスラエル軍は、ガザ地区のイスラム組織イスラム聖戦が撃ったロケット弾が原因だと主張している。
　保健当局によれば、この病院には数百人の病人や負傷者以外に、これ以前の空爆によって「自宅からの避難を余儀なくされた」市民も身を寄せていた。
　７日のハマスによる攻撃を受け、イスラエル軍はガザ北部から退避するよう市民に求める一方で、砲撃を続けている。ガザの病院は安全な避難場所だと信じて避難してきた人々で、中庭も廊下もあふれ返っていた。
　アフリアラブ病院が攻撃される前、南部ハンユニスのナセル病院では、中庭で女性たちがパンを作り、洗濯物を干していた。その間も、救急車が次々に負傷者を運び込み、医師らが必死の救命処置を続けていた。
　マットレスが地面を覆いつくすように敷かれている。夜になると、家を失ったか、追われてきた人々が空爆のごう音と寒さの中で眠りに就こうとしている。
　ガザ最大のシファ病院周辺にも避難先を求めて数千人が集まっていた。
　そのうちの一人は、「こんな目に遭わなければいけないなんて、私たちが何をしたというのだろう。子どもたちが何をしたというのか」と嘆いた。「ほとんどの市民は武装グループには入っていない」
　世界保健機関（ＷＨＯ）は、「どこの病院も限界に達しており、安全な避難場所を必死に探す市民であふれている」と指摘。ＡＦＰに対し、ガザの保健当局の統計として、「シファ病院だけで３万人以上が避難している」と述べた。
　ＷＨＯによれば、これまでに１１１か所の医療施設が攻撃され、医療従事者１２人が死亡、救急車６０台が標的となった。
　ガザ当局によれば、ハマスの攻撃以降、イスラエルの攻撃による死者は約３０００人に上っている。ガザ北部からは約１００万人がハンユニスをはじめとする南部に移動。北部には約１０万人が残っている。
　イスラエル以外でガザ地区と外界を結ぶ唯一のルート、南部ラファ検問所のエジプト側では、支援物資を積んだ車列が待機している。しかし、エジプトは検問所を閉鎖したままだ。
　イスラエルは、ガザへの電気と水の供給を遮断した。給水は一部再開したが、一日の必要量のごくわずかしかない。
　ガザの病院では、死傷者数が増え続けている。既に数百人の子どもが死亡し、１万人に上る負傷者の多くが、今も残っている６か所の病院に詰め込まれている。
　医薬品の不足も危機的状況に拍車を掛けている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/10/19-18:07）

For tens of thousands of families in Gaza, hospitals became a refuge from seemingly endless Israeli shelling.
Then came the strike Tuesday night on Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza, which the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory said killed at least 200 people.
The ministry, which blamed Israel for the strike, said Ahli Arab was sheltering not only hundreds of sick and wounded, but also people forcibly displaced from their homes because of other strikes.
Israel's army said a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad Palestinian militants caused the strike.
Gaza residents, who have been told to flee the north of the Palestinian territory, had packed the courtyards and corridors of the territory's overwhelmed hospitals in the belief they were a safe haven from the Israeli bombardments that followed the October 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel.
At Nasser hospital, before the Ahli Arab strike, women made bread and spread out clothes to dry in the courtyard of the facility in the southern district of Khan Yunis, as a stream of ambulances brought casualties and surgeons desperately sought to save lives inside.
Amira, 44, and her children were among hundreds to have taken over the courtyard.
Our bodies itch all over. It has been a week since we could take a shower, she told AFP as she prepared sandwiches for her children with some loaves she had been given.
Death might be more merciful, she added.
Makeshift mattresses cover the ground and each night the homeless and displaced try to sleep amid the roar of air attacks and the growing cold.
Ibrahim Teyssir is one of thousands to seek refuge around the Dar al-Shifa hospital, the biggest in Gaza and the heart of the medical system for the 2.4 million population.
No one has pity on us, said Teyssir. What have we done to deserve this? What have our children done?
Most people are not part of any armed group.
Hospitals are at a breaking point and are overflowing and with people desperately seeking a safe shelter, the World Health Organization added.
Crowding is getting worse. Over 30,000 people are sheltering at Shifa Hospital alone, the UN agency told AFP, quoting Hamas health ministry figures.
We are extremely concerned about disease outbreaks due to mass displacement and poor water and sanitation among people who are already in a dire situation.
- Safe haven? -
The hospitals were attractive because they had been relatively spared from the Israeli bombing raids that have hit Gaza every day since the October 7 attacks in which 1,400 people died in southern Israel.
But the WHO says that 111 medical buildings have been hit, 12 medical workers have been killed and 60 ambulances targeted.
About 3,000 people have died in Israeli raids since the since the Hamas attacks, according to the Gaza authorities.
About one million people from northern Gaza have moved to Khan Yunis and other southern districts to avoid the looming Israeli ground offensive.
About 100,000 people are left in the northern district around Gaza City that Israel says is a Hamas stronghold and has warned will be the target of its assault.
Conditions across the tiny territory are worsening every day for the 2.4 million population, according to aid agencies.
UNICEF, the UN children's agency, has said that unless water and fuel are sent immediately, Gaza inhabitants are in imminent danger of epidemics and death.
The only crossing to the rest of the world at Rafah is closed.
Egypt has refused to open Rafah even though trucks loaded with aid are waiting on the Egyptian side of the border.
Some shells have fallen on the Gaza side, and Egypt, Israel and the United States have failed to agree a way to open the border gates to let aid in and some foreign nationals out.
Israel has also cut power and water supplies to Gaza.
It has partially eased the water blockade, but only a tiny fraction of the daily needs has passed through.
Gaza's hospitals say they will struggle to keep operating and the human toll grows every hour.
Hundreds of children are already among the dead and there are 10,000 injured, many packed into the six remaining hospitals.
Shortages of medicines have added to the crisis caused by the lack of water and fuel to keep medical establishments running.