Netanyahu Blocks Order To Build Field Hospital for Gaza Children

Tens of thousands of children have been wounded in Gaza and newborn babies are dying because they cannot get proper nutrients

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Wednesday that the Israeli military was setting up a field hospital inside Israel to treat Palestinian children from Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vetoed the plan.

Netanyahu’s office said that it informed Gallant in writing that the prime minister does approve establishing a “temporary hospital” for Gaza’s children, and therefore, it would “not be established.”

An official in the Israeli Defense Ministry told The Times of Israel that Netanyahu blocked the hospital for “political reasons.”

Netanyahu could come under criticism from extremist members of his coalition government for enabling the treatment of Palestinian children, which includes not only kids wounded by Israeli airstrikes but also newborn babies who are dying due to a lack of nutrition since their malnourished mothers cannot breastfeed.

Some children have been evacuated into Egypt for medical care, but since Israel captured the Rafah border crossing on May 7, that vital lifeline has been cut off.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, nearly 16,000 children have been killed by the Israeli assault on Gaza, and about 38,000 have been wounded, which includes many amputees. Due to the Israeli siege, children’s limbs have been amputated without anesthetics.

Foreign doctors and health workers who volunteered at Gaza hospitals have recalled horrific scenes. Nick Maynard, a British surgeon who worked at Gaza’s al-Aqsa Hospital, recalled a story about a young girl who was left to die on the hospital floor.

“One child that I’ll never forget had burned so bad you could see her facial bones,” Maynard said. “We knew there was no chance of her surviving that, but there was no morphine to give her. So, not only was she inevitably going to die, but she would die in agony. And what made it even worse was that there was nowhere for her to go and die, so she was just left on the floor of the emergency department to die.”

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.