Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital is the main medical center serving the area, yet the hospital is ill-equipped at best to handle mass causality incidents that may result from Operation Cast Lead. The hospital is planned for expansion, including its emergency room, but to date, bureaucratic red tape has prevented this from becoming a reality.

Even worse is the fact the hospital has never been fortified and at present, it is vulnerable to rocket attacks striking the city, as has been the case over the past 24 hours. There are plans for an underground unit accommodating 250 beds as was reported by YWN earlier (HERE), but this plan has been on hold for over a year. Now, emergency agencies are concerned, well-aware the patients in Barzilai are at risk from a rocket attack. In the past, rockets have landed dangerously close to the medical facility.

Dr. Shimon Sharif, the hospital’s director confirms the structure is at risk at present, with Ashkelon well within Hamas firing range, blaming the minister of religious services “who would prefer to fortify Byzantine era Christian graves than the lives of people.” Sharif is referring to the cessation in moving ahead with the underground fortified unit due to the discovery of ancient graves.

Sharif reports that with the start of the IDF operation, the emergency room has been relocated to the basement of a older hospital building, providing a measure of fortification, but he warns there is only room for a maximum of 15 beds and stretchers, explaining if there is a major incident, the hospital will not have the ability to address the situation. All patients that are deemed suitable for discharge are being released.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)