Deir el-Balah, Gaza – Mohammad Sukkar is secure now – or safer – however even because the group at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah work to assist him, his eyes fill with tears as he recounts his expertise in al-Shifa Hospital.
The 27-year-old man fled south, wounded and stripped of his garments, after days of siege after which detention by the Israeli military within the Shifa advanced, together with dozens of different individuals.
“I had been displaced from al-Shujayea east of Gaza, which was destroyed and I used to be volunteering on the hospital after being displaced,” Sukkar advised Al Jazeera, mendacity on a makeshift pallet normal out of some tough gray blankets on the ground.
“Late on a Monday … there was intense gunfire as Israeli tanks superior in the direction of the hospital,” he mentioned.
“We didn’t know what was happening. The Israeli military ordered us through loudspeakers to remain contained in the advanced buildings and never transfer in any respect.”
Sukkar and dozens of different displaced individuals – lots of them households with youngsters – had been trapped, together with sick individuals, for 4 agonising days in a Shifa constructing.
“We had no water or meals. We had been ravenous, and so afraid of the artillery shelling. All we might hear was the military booming by way of loudspeakers, capturing individuals and burning buildings round us,” he mentioned.
“We didn’t even consider going exterior.”
‘Waving white flags’
Because the siege continued and thirst took maintain, among the trapped individuals determined to enterprise out, waving white flags.
“We gathered – males, girls, youngsters, and the aged – waving white flags and advancing cautiously,” Sukkar recalled.
“The military opened fireplace, forcing us to beg for secure passage, telling them we wished to get out as we had been ravenous and there was no water.
“The troopers insisted we return to the constructing however then, minutes later, they known as out that each one the lads ought to keep and line up and the ladies ought to collect and head south.”
The troopers made the lads strip and maintain their fingers above their heads as they handcuffed and blindfolded them.
“For 4 days, we had been shackled within the chilly within the hospital courtyard with out meals or water,” he mentioned, pausing as a medic got here by and administered some medicine to him.
“If we requested for something, the troopers shouted at us, kicked us with their boots, spat at us, and insulted us with essentially the most horrific phrases,” Sukkar continued.
Ultimately, the troopers launched among the detainees, ordering them to go south – with out their garments or belongings.
“We began strolling in the direction of al-Rashid Avenue. I used to be with 5 younger detainees and we had been all shivering from chilly and worry. The roads had been stuffed with tanks and troopers, our bodies on the bottom – however we stored strolling, our fingers raised above our heads.”
“After we reached an Israeli checkpoint, the troopers stopped us, let the others move however arrested me,” Sukkar mentioned.
“I attempted to ask the place they had been taking me, however they beat me. There have been about 10 troopers, all of whom had been kicking me and utilizing metallic bars to hit me throughout.”
After attacking him, the troopers advised Sukkar to go, however he had been crushed so laborious he was not in a position to stroll. So that they loaded him right into a army jeep and threw him out close to the checkpoint.
“My fingers and toes had been very painful and bleeding. I used to be crawling till a passer-by noticed me, gave me first assist, and took me to the hospital.”
‘Excessive terror’
Arriving on the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in an ambulance was Mohammad Marshoud, a skinny, subdued 25-year-old man with a clump of dirty medical cotton taped to at least one facet of his head.
He was injured when Israeli forces shelled his household’s residence within the neighborhood of the al-Shifa Hospital, the place he was staying with 15 relations, together with his aged mother and father, his sisters, their youngsters and a few cousins.
After an ordeal that lasted days, Marshoud was in a position to stroll to the south along with his cousin, each of them badly injured and stripped of all their clothes. He doesn’t know the destiny of any of the remainder of his household.
It was solely when emergency response groups discovered them that they had been in a position to give them blue plastic robes to guard them from the chilly a bit.
“We had been sleeping after we had been shocked by the Israeli tanks,” Marshoud mentioned of the day the siege started round al-Shifa.
“We obtained able to flee however once I opened the door, there have been tanks on our doorstep.
“Everybody was in excessive terror. We cowered in a small hall, unable to maneuver with all of the capturing. The kids had been crying and the ladies screaming in worry. We had been positive we’d all die.”
Artillery shells exploded in the home, wounding Marshoud, his cousin, and his aged father, all of whom had been hit by shrapnel within the head and again.
“We weren’t in a position to name an ambulance. We crawled round to seize bits of clothes or medical gauze from right here and there in the home so we might cease our wounds bleeding,” mentioned Marshoud, who works as a nurse.
Israeli troopers stormed the home and arrested all the lads, together with Marshoud’s father, who’s 70.
“I had ready for this second, wrote an indication in English for the kids to carry; it mentioned: We’re civilians and youngsters solely. Please assist us,” Marshoud mentioned.
“However they didn’t care, they simply arrested the lads and ordered us to strip.”
The troopers took Marshoud, his father, and his cousin to a close-by constructing the place that they had detained different males.
“Our wounds had been nonetheless bleeding. The place was stuffed with damaged stones they usually made us sleep on them,” he mentioned.
“They beat us severely, pulled out my chest hair and tortured me. They wouldn’t allow us to go to the bathroom … among the individuals there moist themselves.”
After 5 days of detention, Marshoud and his cousin had been launched and ordered to go south.
“There have been so many tanks. Quadcopters had been hovering above us, our bodies everywhere in the roads.”
“All I can take into consideration is my household … I can’t contact them, I don’t know the place they’re.”
