Gaza Health Ministry never said all ICU patients died at Al Shifa | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·4 min read
31

The claim: Gaza Health Ministry announced all ICU patients at Al Shifa Hospital had died

A Nov. 12 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a picture of hospital beds in a makeshift hallway.

"Gaza’s Ministry of Health has officially announced the death of all ICU patients in the Al Shifa hospital due to the outages of electric power and oxygen," reads the post's caption.

The post garnered more than 5,000 likes in five days. Similar versions of the claim were shared on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.

More from the USA TODAY Fact-Check Team:

Fact check roundup: Israel-Hamas war sparks many misleading claims online. Here's what's true and false.

Our rating: False

The ministry didn't announce that all ICU patients had died. In a press briefing, the health minister said 39 babies died at the hospital, but the ministry corrected this information the same day. There are no credible reports of all ICU patients dying.

Some ICU patients still alive at Al Shifa

On Nov. 11, supplies and fuel for generators ran out at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza as strikes from Israeli forces intensified. The Israeli military claims the hospital is being used as a base by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and the U.S. National Security Council says it has intelligence showing the hospital was used as a command center and ammunition depot for the group. Hamas has denied this.

In a press briefing that day, Gaza Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said the hospital's incubators were without power, and oxygen supplies were depleted.

"Now there is nothing but inevitable death," said the minister, according to an English translation broadcast by Al Jazeera. "This is what is waiting for the patients and victims. And as we speak, I received the latest number. Thirty-nine babies born were killed."

Fact check: Footage of Palestinian journalist dying from 2014, not current Israel-Hamas war

The Health Ministry corrected this statement the same day, telling the Turkish state-run news outlet Anadolu Agency that one baby had died in the hospital's ICU, while 39 were at risk of death.

This correction was published the day before the Nov. 12 Instagram post was shared, according to web archives of the article.

The post features the logo of Quds News Network, a Palestinian news site with a reputation for being affiliated with the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad. The network's Instagram page has no record of the post, but it's unclear if it was deleted or was mocked up to imitate the network style. The network shared a post using the same photo and a similar format on Nov. 20.

Though there is conflicting information about the deaths of patients at the hospital, there aren't any credible reports of all of the hospital's intensive care patients dying.

Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, head of the hospital's plastic surgery department, told ABC News on Nov. 15 that 43 out of the hospital's 63 intensive care patients died.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Lead Stories and The Dispatch also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No reports that all ICU patients at Al Shifa died | Fact check