11/13/23 11/13/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the situation is very critical. nothing has happened like this before. targeting the hospital building. our colleagues, they barely communicate. amy: gaza's two largest

hospitals are no longer functioning as they runs out of fuel and are surrounded by israeli forces. doctors at al-shifa hospital are desperately trying to keep alive over 30 premature babies after six babies died due to the power outage. we will speak to a pediatric intensive care physician who works with the humanitarian aid organization msf, or doctors without borders. then we remember the palestinian doctor hammam alloh who was killed saturday when an israeli artillery shell struck his wife's home, killing him, his father, brother-in-law, and father-in-law. the doctor spoke to democracy now! two weeks ago about why he continued to risk his life to help patients. >> you think i would to americans go from a post graduate degrees, 14 years, to

think only about my life and not my patients? amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. gaza's two largest hospitals, al-shifa and al-quds, have closed as gaza's health system collapses under relentless israeli bombardment and blockades. at least six premature babies and nine other patients have died at al-shifa due to shortages of electricity. photos show premature babies removed from their incubators and placed together on a bed for warmth as the last remaining hospital workers are forced to resort to desperate measures. medical staff say israeli forces have entered hospitals and fired at patients and forced hundreds of others onto the streets. doctors and officials with the

palestinian ministry of health pleaded with international actors to allow for the safe evacuation and treatment of patients. dr. muhammad qandil at al-shifa. >> [indiscernible] there is no service. we don't know what is going on. the communication was lost. they might be dead or alive. now al-shifa hospital, they cannot deal with the dead bodies.

amy: nearly 200 medical workers have been reported killed since october 7. among the dead, al-shifa's dr. hamam alloh, whose family home was shelled by israel. we spoke to dr. alloh less than two weeks ago. later in the broadcast, we'll play back the whole interview. in geneva, u.n. staff observed a minute of silence today in memory of the 101 employees of unrwa, the u.n.'s palestinian refugee agency, killed in israel's assault on gaza. palestinian health officials say it's impossible to determine an updated death toll due to communications outages but said on sunday at least 11,100 people have been killed since the start of the conflict, including 8000 children and women. on friday, israel's foreign ministry lowered its official death toll from hamas' october 7 attack in israel to 1200 people,

down from 1400. mass displacement continues as gazans continue to flee southwards despite israeli attacks also targeting southern cities like khan younis, where another 13 people were killed in an israeli airstrike. this is a displaced palestinian. >> nowhere is safe in gaza. my son was injured and there was not a single hospital i could take him to so he could get stitches. there is no water. there isn't enough saltwater we can wash our hands with. there is no water for evolution. bodies are filling the streets. only god knows if it will be solved, if they will live or die. we were forced to leave. the whole world has let us down.

amy: the white house says it is in active consultations with israel's military over fighting in and around hospitals. on friday, secretary of state antony blinken said far too many palestinians have been killed in gaza, but the u.s. has yet to call for a ceasefire or reconsider any of its unconditional military aid to israel. french president emanuel macron called on israel to stop killing women, babies, and elderly people in gaza, and for the first time since the assault started, called for a ceasefire. >> i think this is the only solution we have, the cease-fire. because it is impossible to explain. amy: president macron said he hoped other countries, including the u.s. and u.k., would join in the call for a ceasefire. france last month banned palestinian solidarity protests.

in britain, prime minister rishi sunak fired hard-right home secretary suella braverman after she called protests for palestinian rights hate marches and published an op-ed last week accusing london police force of using double standards in dealing with protesters against the war. braverman was accused of fomenting right-wing hatred. in a surprising move, british prime minister rishi sunak has brought back former prime minister david cameron to act as foreign secretary amid a wider cabinet reshuffle. mary lou mcdonald, the head of sinn fein, is calling on irish and european leaders to take action against israel's assault on gaza. >> where is the protection of international law for every child killed in gaza, for every gazan mother holding the cold bodies of their dead child? israel could not be allowed to

commit atrocities with impunity. the government says that israel 's actions cannot be without consequences. i agree. that is why the irish government must take the lead and refer israel to the international criminal court and send the israeli ambassador home. amy: mary lou mcdonald spoke at sinn fein's annual conference where palestinian ambassador to ireland dr. jilan wahba abdalmajid also spoke and was met with a standing ovation. meanwhile, massive demonstrations continue to fill streets around the world demanding a ceasefire and an end to israel's siege on gaza. up to 300,000 people marched in london over the weekend. around 80 people were arrested. protests continued in the united states, including a series of

families who marched to the homes of president biden in delaware and senator chuck schumer here in new york. israel's military says seven soldiers and 10 other people were injured sunday in a rocket attack by hezbollah fighters from southern lebanon. it was the worst cross-border violence between israel and lebanon since an israeli airstrike a week prior killed a lebanese woman and three children. on sunday, israel's minister of defense yoav gallant warned hezbollah against further attacks on israel, adding, "what we are doing in gaza, we can do in beirut." the pentagon says u.s. war planes have carried out two more air strikes in syria in response to dozens of drone and missile attacks on bases housing pentagon forces in syria and iraq that have injured at least 56 military personnel. reuters reports one of the u.s. strikes targeted a camp run by pro-iranian armed groups in deir al zor province. another struck near a bridge

close to the city of mayadeen, close to the iraqi border. it's at least the third round of u.s. air strikes in syria in just over two weeks. in sudan, human rights groups say members of the rapid support forces paramilitary group carried out a massacre of around 1300 masalit people over three days earlier this month in sudan's west darfur region. about 2000 people were injured in the attacks and at least 300 others remain missing. survivors of the massacre say rsf fighters went from house to house looking for men, killing each one they found. on friday, the united nations warned more than 6 million people have fled their homes in sudan since fighting between rival military factions erupted in april. about 25 million people, or more than half sudan's population, is reliant on humanitarian aid. this is the u.n.'s humanitarian coordinator for sudan. >> don't have the words to describe the horror of what is happening in sudan. we continue to receive

unrelenting and appalling reports of sexual and gender-based violence and forced disappearance, arbitrary detentions, and grave violations of human and children's rights. what is happening is verging on pure evil. amy: in spain, massive protests rocked madrid and other cities over the weekend after acting prime minister pedro sanchez agreed to grant amnesty to leaders of the catalan separatist group junts in exchange for their support to form a new government, securing another term for sanchez as spain's leader. carles puigdemont, head of junts, has been in exile in brussels since he and others were convicted over catalonia's attempt to secede from spain in 2017. the proposed amnesty deal would allow separatist leaders to run for office. sanchez's conservative opponents have slammed the deal and urged their supporters to take to the streets. sanchez and his socialist workers' party formed a coalition with the leftist sumar alliance last month and made a series of progressive pledges.

australia has signed an agreement with tuvalu, allowing citizens of the low-lying pacific island nation to take up residency in australia should rising sea levels force them to abandon their homes. about 11,000 residents of tuvalu are among the world's most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. in return for offering them residency, australia will have effective veto power over tuvalu's security arrangements with any other country. australia's foreign minister penny wong acknowledged the deal was aimed at countering china's influence in the asia-pacific . >> those who live in a more contested region. we have to work harder to be a partner of choice. we know that. unlike the previous government, we have been doing the work and will do the work to work with the pacific island forum numbers

to assure australia's presence as a member of the family and as a partner of choice. amy: fbi agents seized electronic devices from new york city mayor eric adams last week as part of an investigation into whether his 2021 campaign received illegal donations from turkey. adam's two cellular phones and ipad were returned days later. the seizure came in the wake of a federal raid on the home of adams' chief campaign fundraiser. the alleged donation scheme is believed to involve foreign businesses who used turkish-american citizens as straw donors to funnel money into eric adams' mayoral campaign. federal investigators are also said to be looking into whether adams, shortly before he was elected mayor, pressured the new york fire department into approving occupancy of a new turkish consulate in manhattan despite safety concerns with the high-rise building. adams reportedly pushed to open the building in time for a planned visit by turkish president recep tayyip erdogan to new york to attend the 2021

u.n. general assembly. south carolina senator tim scott announced he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. scott, the only black republican u.s. senator, did not immediately endorse another candidate. just two months out from the first nominating contest in iowa, donald trump remains the republican party's clear frontrunner despite his myriad legal troubles. and in california, a jury has found animal rights activist and attorney wayne hsiung guilty of three charges, including felony conspiracy to trespass after he led direct action protests in 2018 and 2019 that rescued ducks and chickens from factory farms in sonoma county. hsiung faces up to 3.5 years at a sentencing hearing scheduled for november 30. he spoke to democracy now! after his arrest in 2019. >> if you or i tortured an individual., we would be subject

to the criminal laws of california. but yet when it is done on a larger scale, it is seen as industry-standard and therefore completely immune from prosecution. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, we speak to pediatric intensive care dr. back in a moment. ♪ [music break]

amy: "the children are i" by nasha rahas. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. gaza's two largest hospitals, al-shifa and al-quds come has stopped functioning. on saturday, al-shifa hospital ran out of fuel forcing doctors to remove dozens of premature babies from incubators.

six preemies have already died. doctors are struggling to keep more than 30 other babies alive. palestinian health officials have accused israel of using snipers to shoot at people inside the hospital complex where thousands of displaced palestinians have sought refuge. israel has claimed hamas runs a command center below the hospital. hamas and medical officials at the hospital have denied the claim. on sunday, dr. mohammed obeid, a surgeon with doctors without borders, described the dire situation inside the hospital. >> situation is very bad. there's no internet. if there is a sniper who attacked four patients inside the hospital. [indiscernible] some of the people --

amy: that was a surgeon with msf, doctors without borders come inside the al-shifa hospital. on sunday, democracy now! reached another doctor in gaza city, dr. fadel naim. >> we are in the only

functioning hospital in gaza city. all of the injured people, children with dehydration, patients -- they are coming to our hospital because they have no other possibility to go to other hospitals. the other hospitals are surrounded by the israeli takers like al-shifa hospital. some of the hospitals are closed because of the shortage of fuel

and equipment. since yesterday, we received more than 300 injured people and other people who have other health problems. we had to do some interventions in the corridors and courtyard because of the shortage of anesthesia drugs. our least problem is the shortage in manpower because we are a small hospital. we are not prepared to receive the number of patients at one time. many came to help us but we need

specialized doctors in different specialties. surgeries and gynecology and pediatric. unfortunately, we could not -- many of these patients, some of them died because we could not do anything for them. amy: that was dr. fadel naim speaking sunday from al-ahli al-arabi hospital in gaza city. to talk more about the humanitarian crisis in gaza, we are joined by dr. tanya haj-hassan. she is a pediatric intensive care physician who works with the humanitarian aid organization msf, or doctors without borders. she is in regular contact with health professionals in gaza and previously worked as a medical

trainer in gaza and the west bank. she is the co-founder of the social media account gaza medic voices, which shares first-hand accounts from healthcare professionals in gaza. on saturday, she took part in a vigil outside british prime minister rishi sunak's office in london. she broke down while reading an urgent message from the director of al-shifa hospital in gaza dr. nidal hadrous. >> we as medical staff want to leave but we cannot. we might not survive until the morning. amy: dr. haj-hassan breaks down as she tries to read a statement from a doctor in gaza. she sits down, covers her eyes.

her colleagues, also in blue hospital gear, put their arms around her. looks we don't want to be killed here. just only because we remain committed to our patients and our medical profession. i'm calling for help urgently. please do whatever you canter your governments for the internationals -- whatever you can to your governments, to arrange a safe corridor for the medical staff. please treat this is urgent. this is the director of a major hospital in gaza. i'm going to leave you with one more message. to bomb a hospital means to terrify sleeping patients. to break windows over their heads, to make walls fall on their bodies, to rip out ventilators and burn oxygen tanks. to ruin equipment that can help humans millions of times. amy: that was dr. tanya haj-hassan, a pediatric

intensive care physician who works with the humanitarian aid group doctors without borders. she was reading an urgent message from the director of al-shifa hospital in gaza dr. nidal hadrous. dr. haj-hassan, thank you for joining us. you must become, to say the least, beyond exhausted. i last saw you in jordan and now you're in toronto, canada. can you talk about the latest? that was saturday. this is now two days later. >> just to be clear, this was a vigil with multiple health-care providers present who have been working in the gaza strip for over a decade. we are all in tears. every day we feel like we have reached the worst. i'm going to quote one of my colleagues who said, "every day we think we have reached the worst thing that could ever happen and it is impossible the

world will be silent to it and it and will definitely get better and we finally reach the end and the next a proof there's something even worse." i share that sentiment. we have descended into a very dark era for humanity. let me paint a picture of the conditions. right now at al-shifa hospital receiving updates until about an hour and half ago, it is difficult to receive updates because communication has been cut off so they are intermittent. certain individuals have connections. al-shifa hospital is the largest trauma hospital in gaza. it is under complete siege. it has been come under direct attack by israeli forces for over a week now. the medical staff, including msf staff, are physically in the hospital at the moment. there are patients in critical, hundreds of patients.

there are thousands of internally displaced individuals who are still inside the hospital completely under siege, surrounded by israeli tanks with no access to food. their surviving on biscuits left in the hospital. they have no access to water. they describe being very thirsty. as you know, they have no access to electricity after the fuel supply was cut off, and more recently the solar panels were bombed. they describe over 100 bodies lying on the ground decomposing, dead bodies, that they cannot very after having to dig mass graves in the garden of the hospital. the morgues cannot be cooled to preserve the bodies. there is no electricity. so they are decomposing. the intensive care unit was targeted twice the last 24 hours. there 28 patients there, two have passed away over the course of the evening. they have no access to oxygen.

dialysis patients require electricity to run the dialysis machines because they have kidney failure do not have access to the machines. i can describe you in detail what death will look like for these patients. toxins will develop in their bloodstream. they will become overloaded with fluid because they cannot pee it out. they will feel very unwell and will probably get very confused. they will have difficulty breathing and eventually they will die. this is a slow, horrible, painful death -- preventable painful death, like all the deaths in gaza. the mood inside the hospital is getting directly killed. two nurses were killed by snipers in the last 24 hours. anyone who tries to leave the hospital is targeted. you mentioned the 38 premature newborns. i'm not sure how they're going

to provide them with the things they need including food. this is an entire hospital that is completely cut off and we've had very little to no news from the other hospitals in the north of gaza. the last we heard there completely surrounded like al-shifa hospital. we are in a situation where there has been a systematic attempt to destroy civilian palestinian livelihood and existence in all of gaza, not just the north. 30% of the killed have been in the south of gaza, which is supposed to be the safe zone. so-called humanitarian corridors are called the corridor of death by gazans because they get to wrigley targeted as they are trying to flee. doctors without borders i mentioned we are struggling to contact a lot of the staff. when my colleagues said we are sure we are alone now.

no one hears us. we are alone. msf was established, one of the main principles of msf establishment decades ago was to provide testimony to bear witness on these sorts of atrocities that are not exposed and truly the suffering of those who experience them. we are in a situation where we can't do either of those things. one of our msf staff who is staying in gaza city but not specifically in the hospital at the moment said they are dead people in the streets. "they're dead people on the streets. we see people being shot at. we can hear him crying for help but we cannot do anything. it is too dangerous to go outside." amy cannot reach the wounded. you mentioned -- ambulances cannot reach the wounded. you mentioned dr. naim describing how he had refused to

leave the hospital and deserve his patients. i knew him. he was a beacon of light. he is a gift to the world of medicine and his patients. he was a brilliant nephrologist, what of the most highly trained doctors in gaza. he was transforming the care of patients with chronic renal disease come the same patients i told you are not subject to a slow and horrifying death. he spent a decade learning how to serve people. he also has a very young family. he was killed and his wife's home along with his father -- amy:'s father, father-in-law, brother-in-law. >> is young children and the rest are under the rubble at the moment and having calling out to the red cross to try and help evacuate and the red cross

cannot reach them for all the reasons i mentioned. i can't believe i'm having to say this but health-care providers, health care facilities, civilians have to be protected. he mentioned in his interview to you that -- amy: we are a little trouble with dr. haj-hassan's skype. we're going to play that interview. dr. haj-hassan, can you hear me? >> i can. amy: you are breaking up a bit. i wanted to bring in another doctor into this conversation as you talk about the doctor whose interview we're going to play in just a minute, dr. ben thomson was also a friend and colleague of dr. hammam alloh.

he is a nephrologist in toronto. dr. ben thomson, can you also tell us about dr. hammam alloh? we're going to play the full interview in just a moment that we did with him just two weeks ago. >> thank you, ms. goodman. dr. hammam alloh, was an incredible human being, committed physician, wonderful father. when i was at his home in september in gaza city, i was joking with them because i said, you're such an optimist. he was absolutely convinced, insisted if the world knew what was happening in gaza, it would intervene and it would end the suffering for people in gaza. like so many doctors in gaza over the last month faced with horrible circumstances, he

remains committed to his patients. he cared for them despite everything that he faced. the very first interview he did as he was speaking to the world about the horrors he was experiencing in gaza, his own home was bombed. windows, the front door of his house blew off. he went to check on his children. he went to check on his father that lived with him. he put them in a room and then he came back and finished the interview. the very next take you would to work. this was his level of commitment. i am convinced if he was sitting here talking to you, he would have been very clear with you. he was an optimist, yes, and he had good days and bad days over the last month. when we spoke every day, he would talk about how he was committed to developing education programs for today's doctors and the doctors of

tomorrow in gaza, but he also had very difficult days. faced with difficult circumstances. seeing his colleagues been killed, working in hospitals with no food or water or electricity, knowing his patients required dialysis treatment three times a week to survive, knowing that would be dead within a week without electricity. knowing that he still went to work. those good days where he talked to me about education, he also had bad days. on those bad days, he would tell me, speaking of the horrors he was seeing. he was experiencing war crimes. he would tell me he was experiencing a genocide of his own people. it was horrible. i think at this point, politicians are embarrassing themselves by their inaction. he would have -- there are

things he would've wanted that i can talk to you about. i think we need to remember dr. hammam alloh was incredibly committed to his patients. amy: how did he die, dr. thomson? >> he was hit in an airstrike. he was at his wife's home. he was with his father, with his father-in-law, and brother-in-law, his wife and two children who are four years old and five-year-old -- his wife and two children who are four years old and fibers old were at his home, so they survive. amy: dr. thomson come if you can tell me about your own situation in toronto -- to say the least, very different from gaza. but you were suspended for a month after you in the hospital

were threatened over his comments that you tweeted on x? can you talk about this? >> i think like many people around the world, i have experienced bullying, harassment, other negative consequences speaking up for palestine. in my situation, i had death threats. i was suspended from the hospital. i had a difficult month. but my worst day over the last month is nothing compared to, you know, the best day of anyone in the last month in gaza. it is still worse than my worst day. the reality is people like dr. hammam alloh would want us to think about what do we need right now? yes, i suffered death threats but the reality is, dr. hammam

was killed and others have been killed. it behooves us right now to think, what do we have to do? we must have an immediate cease-fire. we must have rapid and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid. speaking with dr. hammam a in september, he talked about he wanted his children to be able to see a day when they had a free, just, durable free life in palestine without occupation. we spoke of this often. i think it behooves us now as the international community, yes, many of us have been threatened -- the reality is much worse for our colleagues in gaza. the reality is, we absolutely need a cease-fire, humanitarian aid, and there must be a durable , peaceful, just solution for a free palestine. amy: i want to bring dr. tanya

haj-hassan back into the conversation. we are having a little trouble with your skype. i want to ask you to respond to what israel is saying, that they are attacking the hospital because hamas has used it, underneath it at least, or around it -- not exactly clear -- as command and control? >> you know, i get asked this question all the time. i got this asked -- i got asked this question in 2014. 2008, 2009, 2021. these are not new accusations. it is also not new that those accusations have not been substantiated. i have worked in these hospitals and can tell you what they are with certainty. they are health care facilities caring for patients with limited resources as a consequence of a

16 year siege and health care professionals that are the most dedicated doctors, nurses, paramedics, pharmacist that i have met in my entire life. and dr. hammam alloh is a perfect example of that, as our every single doctor who has been killed and nurse and paramedic and microbiologist. over 200 health care providers have been killed to date and they have been screaming for international protection. so i can tell you they are health care facilities and regardless of military activity around us hospitals are substantiated, it is an international -- it would be considered a war crime to target them if they are functioning as a health care facility and they are. that i am confident of. i am also confident i have never personally seen any evidence of military activity in and around

the hospitals. that is the most i can say to this. i think it is important to remember we keep getting sucked into these arguments where we justifying these preposterous justifications for the violation of international law. instead of constantly trying to defend something that is completely -- to defend against something preposterous but we need to focus on what is clear. what is clear is over 11,000 gazans have been killed to date. almost 200 palestinians in the west bank have been killed. health care facilities are directly targeted with intent was of ambulances are targeted with intent. everything that is needed that is indispensable to survival from food to water to medical

facilities, shelter -- everything has been targeted intentionally and destroyed. that is what we should be focusing on. they're honest 5000 children who have been killed that we know about we don't have statistics from the last 48 hours because they have completely destroyed the ability to even expose these atrocities. the last message dr. hammam alloh sent just a few hours before he was killed to one of my colleagues he said, "you're shouting means a lot to us. please keep it up." i hope what dr. ben thomson, what myself, what every humanitarian doctor or provider or human out there who is screaming about these atrocities, we paint this horrific picture and i hope it inspires your viewers, politicians everywhere to get up and respond to this avalanche of

suffering with an avalanche of solidarity and action. because this is not a world i want to live in. this is not a world that my colleagues what to live in. and this is not a world we want to raise the next generation of children in. we have museums all around the world that remind us that this is not what we want for humanity. and this is our opportunity to assert that boast amy: dr. haj-hassan, there is a new acronym quite in gaza over the last few weeks, wcmsf. wounded child no surviving family. can you explain? >> over 1000 families have been killed. they have had at least two members of their family killed in the last month.

many families are completely wiped out because these are -- i don't know much about weapons but i can tell you they are very violent weapons that wipe out entire multistory residential buildings where families are sheltering, in seconds. you have had so many families wiped off the civil registry. sometimes a child survives. not infrequently, one person survives. it was happening so frequently they had to coin a term for it and sometimes even writing it on the bodies of the patients. sometimes i just write "unknown" because it is a child with no family to identify. there's also wmsf, wfnsf. they are realities on the ground. amy: i'm going to cut you off

but only so that we can hear this last interview that we did come the last interview with dr. hammam alloh. i want to thank you so much for being with us, dr. tanya haj-hassan, pediatric intensive care physician who works with doctors without borders. and i want to thank dr. ann thompson, friend of dr. hammam alloh, who was killed this weekend, the nephrologist travl to gaza. we're going to take a break and then come back to hear dr. hammam alloh's last words. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nearly 200 medical workers have been reported killed in gaza since october 7. over the weekend, democracy now! learned dr. hammam alloh was killed saturday when a shell struck his family home, killing him, his father, brother-in-law, and father-in-law. he was a kidney specialist who worked at al-shifa, the largest hospital in gaza. he was 36 years old. he leaves behind a wife and two children, a four- and five-year-old.

he spoke to democracy now! october 31 in want of his last interviews. amy: dr. hammam alloh, you have said every day i see a fear in the eyes i can't do much about. it is very painful. if you have kids, know how horrible it is not to be able to comfort them, to ensure they are alright, to make them hope for anything beyond living one more day. if you can talk about that in the hospital, which, as you said, is not just a hospital for sick people? thousands are taking refuge at al-shifa and al-quds and the other hospitals. and also, we're talking to you as you just left al-shifa. how do you comfort your family? what's happening to your family as you're at the hospital? >> i tell them at least we still have a house with a door to close. but many thousand refugees, people like us, who used to live in dignity have no longer houses and no doors to close to protect

them as they are surrounded by wastewater, by garbage. they don't have a liquid, continuous supply of clean water to drink. many of them have a lot of missing members of their families. they don't know if they are alive or not. i tell them at least we still have a house to live in, but they don't have. and surprisingly, my four- and five-year-old kids, they accept this as a comfort, as a better situation compared to those refugees living -- they are living actually in hospitals, but it's not like they are living inside the hospital departments. many of them do not have enough space to go into hospital hallways, so they are living

around the buildings and in the garden. so, yeah, surprisingly, my very young kids accept this. amy: the israeli military has dropped thousands of pamphlets warning people where you are, in northern gaza, to leave. why don't you go with your family south? >> and if i go, who treats my patients? we are not animals. we have the right to receive proper healthcare. so we can't just leave. amy: the world health organization talked about this issue of telling doctors to leave their patients, choosing your own lives over your patients. can you talk about that choice, since so many patients can't leave -- for example, babies in

incubators? >> you think i went to medical school and for my postgraduate degrees for a total of 14 years so i think only about my life and not my patients? i'm asking you, ma'am. do you think this is the reason i went to med school, to think only about my life? this is not the reason why i became a doctor. amy: can you talk about what's happening to the hospitals? just in our headlines today, we talked about, and in the last few days, the attack on the indonesia hospital. the turkish hospital is the only cancer hospital? >> yes. amy: can you talk about the significance of these places, both as a sanctuary, thousands

of people taking refuge, and for patients? >> indonesian hospital is providing healthcare for over 400,000 citizens in the gaza strip. and this part of the gaza strip is being split from the rest of the gaza strip. if this hospital stops providing care, so we are exposing many thousand palestinian souls to the dangers of disease and death. turkish hospital, with its very modest capabilities even before war, was the only hospital providing care and medications for cancer patients from around the gaza strip. it was airstruck yesterday. i don't know how many patients and healthcare professionals were wounded.

and many patients are dying now because they are not safe with their families to go to receive care and to continue their chemotherapy. ministry of health has declared two hours ago also that the electricity would be cut off from al-shifa hospital, the largest hospital, representing 40% of the healthcare power in the gaza strip and providing services for many machine-dependent patients, like the ventilated patients and the hemodialysis patients. so if electricity is cut out from this hospital, so we are directly deciding those patients are going to necessarily die. ventilated patients will die in minutes.

dialysis patients will die in hours to days after stopping their hemodialysis. many patients are now being treated with the modest supplies we have. many diabetic patients are now being admitted to hospital because of their insulin is not being kept in the refrigerator, so it's not working. we are out -- we ran out of many medications like antifungal medications. we have a patient who died earlier this week with mucormycosis. this is an invasive, ugly type of fungal infection that killed her because we had no amphotericin to offer her. so my very simple answer to your question is that death is coming

to so many people in the gaza strip, in hours to days, if this continues the same way it's going on. amy: dr. alloh, the middle east eye reports on a baby who died, says, "his death certificate has been issued before his birth certificate." a one-day-old baby has been killed by israeli bombing in gaza. israel, the military, the government says that al-shifa, your hospital, is hamas -- >> yeah. amy: the site of hamas command and control. can you respond to that, dr. alloh? >> i've been working this hospital for over two years and i never saw this. so i'm no lawyer, i'm no attorney, but this is how i am simply replying. i never saw this for over two years. if this is true, i would see at least a clue.

amy: i want to ask you about the shipments of aid coming in. normally, in normal times -- if there's ever a normal time in gaza -- over 400 trucks a day. we're talking about a trickle of trucks now, maybe a dozen, maybe eight in a day. have you ever seen this aid arriving at the hospital? and can you talk about what you need right now? >> well, that number you just mentioned that was allowed into gaza strip is actually -- is actually what you were referring to. it is nothing compared to what we need, nothing compared to the shortage in supplies, machines and medications we are in need for. the only thing, came just as i was leaving the hospital today,

was a carton of iv fluid bottles. this is the only thing i saw. and i don't really know if this came through the aid trucks in the few couple of days or that was from the stores of the ministry of health. in addition, i happened to ask about in the hospital administration, and what they mentioned that was all about the gloves and gauze. and this is not what we are actually only in need for. this is what maybe the least we care for, the least we are in need for. so this is, again, nothing compared to what we are in need for in terms of supplies and medications. amy: finally, dr. hammam alloh, your message at this point to

the united states, where we're based, and to the world? >> actually, the message hasn't changed since the beginning of this war. first, we need this war to end because we are real humans. we are no animals. we have the right to live freely. second, if you were, and your citizens, to live under these circumstances, what would you do for them? this is what we exactly would like you to do for us as a superpower country, as the united states, because we are really as human as your u.s. citizens are. we were expecting more --

earlier, i mean, solutions for that humanitarian and healthcare catastrophes and the crises, but what we are seeing, mainly through trucks allowed into gaza, is nothing compared to us. so we are being exterminated. we are being massly eradicated. and you pretend to care for humanitarian and human rights, which is not what we are living now. to prove us wrong, please do something. thank you. amy: dr. hammam alloh, speaking to us from gaza city, where he works at the largest hospital, al-shifa hospital. please be safe. >> i hope i will be. let's hope, both together, i will be. thank you.

amy: dr. hammam alloh was speaking from gaza on democracy now! on october 31 in one of his last interviews. he was killed saturday when an israeli artillery shell struck his wife's home, killing him, his father, his father-in-law, and his brother-in-law. dr. alloh was a kidney specialist who worked at al-shifa come the largest hospital in gaza city. he was 36 years old. he leaves behind a wife and two children, a four-year-old and five-year-old. nearly 200 medical workers have been reported killed in gaza since october 7. and that does it for our show. to see all our interviews with doctors, with residents,

historians and scholars and peace activists, with palestinian and israeli peace activists and academics, human rights lawyers, go to democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013.