A male relative of several children killed in Gaza came to the hospital [location withheld] to get information. The staff had admitted only one surviving infant of the Abu Hatab and al-Hadidi families who had sheltered in a residence at the Shati refugee camp as bombs fell.
Editor’s note: Whereas it is hard for readers to believe a UN member nation’s aircraft would be bombing inside a refugee camp in violation of its UN membership agreements and numerous international laws, FPM.news has confirmed through at least five sources, through video and submitted still pictures, that most of the Abu Hatab family and their neighbours and Eid guests were killed by Israeli bombing inside the Shati refugee camp in the occupied Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip.
Anecdotal accounts of the Abu Hatab family being moved from place to place are unconfirmed but possibly indications of more grave malfeasance on the part of Israel’s government. The chaos in the area is high and the number of deceased is murky but growing as workers dig the rubble and hospitals compare notes on their intakes.
by Micheal John
Volunteers & 1st responders dig the rubble
for survivors near the bombing of the Abu Hatab family on May 15, 2021. Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. A woman and her four children are also found dead. Mohammed al-Hadidi’s family, a mother and four sons Abdelrahman (8), Suheib (14), Wisam (6), and Yahya (11) were all killed. They were visiting his brother-in-law’s family to celebrate Eid when Israeli bomber aircraft struck the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City
Photo Credit: Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua
Israel’s precision bomber aircraft bombed the house the Abu Hatab family sheltered within to the street level knocking out several other homes, killing a family of ten including eight kids, two women and injuring or killing up to 22 other locals in the Shati refugee camp, say a policewoman, and two medical worker sources, including one surgeon.
The gripping story of this family killed in an Israeli bombing raid at the Shati refugee camp is continuing as the extended family and friends get the devastating news. Medical workers said when approached, “tell the story please and ask for donors of whole blood because we have many critical crush and shrapnel injuries”.
Mohammed al-Hadidi’s family, a mother and four sons, named Abdelrahman (8), Suheib (14), Wisam (6), and Yahya (11), were all killed. They were visiting Mr. al-Hadidi’s brother-in-law’s family to celebrate Eid when Israeli bomber aircraft struck the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Mr. al-Hadidi explained this to an Aljazeera reporter nearby the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Israeli rescue workers, some of whom came to Israel to help during the May 2018 crisis, stayed. Here an Israeli man who was injured after a rocket from the Hamas landed near him is evacuated in central Israeli city of Holon, on May 11, 2021. Photo Credit: Nimrod Glikman/JINI Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
“[translated] The family helper who came here was in grave distress” says Dr. Nassima al Amouri.
“His face was covered in tears and sweat; he had a runny nose; and I observed a bloody gash on his right temple. He was agitated, very polite, but I sensed he was going into shock. I could tell by his many questions he could not grasp or accept what happened to this family he was asking about.”
The doctor explained, “I gave him cold facts without batting an eye and told him gently but firmly we need the extended family to help care for the living, but we do not know who is who it is such a catastrophe, ‘but our first care is for the living, people like you,’ I said, ‘ so you must come and lie down because you are not well’. ”
“It was not clear if he was a brother or cousin or a father,” she continued, “who was not home at the time of the bombing. This middle-aged family helper of the many injured families was very distressed, so I could barely understand all of what he said. This place is also in chaos. I began to worry about this gentleman so I sat him as he cried and took his vitals and noted he was already in a state of medical shock, hands cold, clammy, blood pressure low at a life-threatening medical state and is having a medical emergency, a crisis-level danger.
“I admitted this family helper for evaluation, which means he would lay in wheeled gurney and have a sublingual medication (to put under his tongue). I had a nurse clean and dress a superficial injury on the side of his head, set up an IV and throw a ringer into him while prescribing some blood tests to make sure nothing else was going on. His good response was immediate.”
“Please send more workers and supplies, maybe from Beirut or Cairo? We are overwhelmed,” she added, “but I am happy to be here. I have 24 patient cases in 12 hours and am very busy newbie here.”
The practitioner is an NGO team leader who came to Israel with four medical practitioners, seasoned nurses from an NGO medical system in Syria. They passed through Jordan, says a spokesperson for their supervisor, “with the generous help of the Jordanian government, and some neutral workers among a segment of the Israeli public health system which to an extent may be nonaligned”.
NGOs make their way into a catastrophe to help civilians under vicious attack.
Gradually several NGOs are finding ways to assist. The Médecins Sans Frontières group according to the women, who said, “we heard rumours during our travel, the MSF would be setting up a small emergency hospital soon, or maybe they are here somewhere (?), but we see now only after 12 hours working here that much more help is needed, and supplies, plus whole blood, or donors, oh God,” she paused, “plus everything.”
Save the Children’s Jason Lee has been urging all sides through the media to deescalate because this conflict is harming children disproportionately.
“We have numbers of children being killed, maimed. This cycle will continue unless we take immediate action on all sides to immediately de-escalate,” Mr. Lee told the BBC in a broadcast interview.
“We have numbers of children being killed, maimed. This cycle will continue unless we take immediate action on all sides to immediately de-escalate,” Mr. Lee told the BBC in a broadcast interview. Photo Credit: BBC Live Capture.
According to Geraldine Frisque, a spokesperson for The RINJ Foundation, “the Egyptians have offered a secure route for medical aid to Gaza but we have a good rapport with the Jordanians for many years so we chose that way.”
When asked about ‘Israeli public health officials who assisted’, Frisque said, “they helped us get to Gaza and also took two of our workers to a walk-in clinic in Bethlehem that had all its staff quit after three days of working with no sleep.”
“Some of our people who came to help in May 2018 made a decision to stay in honour—or maybe anger—of the medical workers who were killed by the Israelis. They have helped us with liaison and coordination but I cannot go into details of where they are and who they are because of grave security concerns. The Israelis have bombed 22 schools, 3 hospitals, many medical clinics and EMS units, residences, apartment buildings, and now a refugee camp,” she said calmly.
“Everyone everywhere has a shortage of frontline medical workers because of the virus. Our people are trained in war zone medicine and health care. We carry large travel luggage of supplies and can fit ourselves in wherever we go and start to work in urgent care immediately. We will go where we are needed and volunteer to work under any medical unit that needs us like an employee but for free as a volunteer. Normally our stay is 7 to 14 days per person and we supply new people as often as needed or as often as we can whichever is the greatest.”
“Remember,” she added, that “RINJ observes neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics; the rule of law; and the universal right to humanitarian assistance; and thus claims full & unfettered freedom in the exercise of its functions. I have never met any person who is truly a medical practitioner who thinks differently and that is why in our travels we have stopover points and helpers who make things happen.
“More of us and our friends with other NGOs are coming in our footsteps. You will see. Humanitarians are well-aware of these malignant human rights crimes by the Occupying Power and have come to occupied Palestine to help Palestinians for years, over and over again.
“More of the world must know what is happening and you journalists must tell the story, hence you are more important in Gaza than us medical workers.
“You thank me for what we do, but we thank you for what you are doing. We must all work together and end apartheid in this region.”
Location of the Gaza strip. Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine