Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
The ceiling collapsed on Dr Fadel Naeem, head of orthopaedics, while he was operating on a patient as Al Ahli Arab Hospital was struck by bombs late on Tuesday.
The assault on Gaza's 130-year-old hospital has sent shock waves around the world after more than 500 people were killed within seconds.
“We heard a huge blast. For a moment, we thought a building close to the hospital was hit,” Dr Naeem told The National.
“Suddenly, the ceiling collapsed on us and we suffered injuries.”
Doctors and health workers ran outside and were faced “with an onslaught of shocking scenes of severed limbs and dead bodies everywhere”, he said.
People were screaming, Dr Naeem added, and “people were dying in our arms as we tried to save them”.
Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, said the blast was a result of an Israeli air strike.
Israel has denied responsibility for the attack and said it was a rocket misfired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group based in Gaza.
Dr Naeem had to leave behind four victims that he “deemed beyond saving” so as to assist others that may have a fighting chance.
“There are no words to describe what we saw, the pile of dead bodies in the hospital. I am speechless,” he said.
The targeting of Al Ahli Arab Hospital stoked anger across the international community over the bloodshed in Gaza, which is home to 2.2 million people.
The Palestinian territory has been under siege by Israel for more than a week, after surprise attacks carried out by Hamas on Israel on October 7.
“We are in a state of belief and disbelief,” at the air strike, Rev Fadi Diab, Deputy Chairman of the hospital's Board told The National from Ramallah.
“There were many families there, seeking refuge in the hospital's halls and courtyard.
“People have always, throughout history, sought refuge in places like this, thinking that they are safe. Even the Episcopal church was slightly damaged by shrapnel,” he said.
The area smelt of blood after the blast, witnesses who were camping near the hospital said.
“We saw women, children, elderly all dead. We were about 10m away from the blast,” said one witness who wanted to remain anonymous.
“We were shocked to see the horror. We saw hands, heads, limbs everywhere.”
The World Health Organisation had previously said health centres in northern Gaza were operating far beyond their capacity, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering inside.
Some people had gathered around and inside Al Ahli Arab Hospital to shelter from the air strikes conducted by Israel.
“We had sought refuge in a place we thought was safe and now we have nowhere to go but to ask for God's mercy. There is nowhere safe in Gaza,” said a witness.
The UAE, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and several Arab states have condemned the Israeli strike.
Turkey announced three days of mourning and the Arab League has placed its flags at half-mast.
Anglican Archbishop Hosam Naoum said the hospital will remain open despite damage to its diagnostic centre and cancer department.
“As churches, we are determined to keep our institutions open and our places of worship open as a sanctuary, especially for women and children in Gaza city,” he said.
About 5,000 people had sought shelter within the hospital compound after more than a million Palestinians were told to leave northern Gaza on Saturday, he said, although the number of refugees at the hospital was changing “day by day.”
“The hospital has been there since 1882 and has been serving all the people in Gaza for so many years. It is a neutral hospital, it's a sanctuary for people because it doesn’t belong to any establishment,” he said.
“Every time there is a strike nearby, people flee to the hospital because it is a sanctuary for them.”
The hospital received a warning of an impending strike an hour before it took place, Waleed Siam, Palestine’s envoy to Tokyo told the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on Wednesday.
However, the church said it received three evacuation warnings – on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday – and said 15 other hospitals had been warned to evacuate.
It did not receive one on Tuesday, said Archbishop Naoum.
PRISCILLA
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More coverage from the Future Forum
How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now
Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.
The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.
1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):
a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33
b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.
2. For those who have worked more than five years
c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.
Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
EU Russia
The EU imports 90 per cent of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40 per cent of EU gas and a quarter of its oil.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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THE POPE'S ITINERARY
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport
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