Violent clash at hospital as family tries to get to woman who died of COVID

Relatives of a woman who died of COVID-19 attempted to force their way into the intensive care unit at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center near Tel Aviv on Tuesday, only to be blocked by security personnel, according to video footage.

The family was denied access to the ward under hospital policy to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The woman’s daughter said they only wanted to pay their last respects to her mother.

A video of the incident shared on social media showed the crowd pushing and shoving their way into the ICU as hospital staff watched from the side, and guards worked to hold them back.

The hospital said in a statement that the woman had been hospitalized with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, then released as her condition improved. She was brought back to the hospital for more treatment when her health deteriorated.

“During the hospitalization due to her condition, another coronavirus test was taken in which she was found to be positive. After every effort was made to fight for her life, she passed away,” the statement said.

“The video documents the violent behavior of some members of the family toward medical staff that is completely unacceptable,” the hospital said.

The hospital explained that while the family insists that she is a recovered virus patient, the National Infection Unit had determined that she never recovered from the disease.

The woman’s daughter told the Ynet website that when her mother was previously hospitalized, her family had been by her bedside, with no protection at all. She said hospital staff who treated her mother were also not wearing protective clothing during that period.

“All we asked is to say goodbye to her in a respectful manner, so that there is no disgrace to the dead,” said the woman, who was not named in the report.

Since the start of the pandemic, 2,580 Israelis have died of the coronavirus.

Last Friday, 100 members of the Druze community broke into a hospital in northern Israel and snatched the body of a community leader who died of COVID-19 in order to hold a mass funeral in defiance of regulations.

The rioters from Majdal Shams, a town near the Syrian border, stormed into Safed’s Ziv Medical Center where Sheikh Abu Zain Al-Din Hassan Halabi had died hours earlier. They managed to overcome officers from the Yasam special police unit who had been stationed at the hospital as law enforcement officials negotiated with Druze community leaders over how to hold the funeral under an ongoing national lockdown due to the virus outbreak.

Video said to be from the scene showed the rioters throwing aside police barricades, shoving security personnel, pounding on the hospital door, marching down the medical center’s hallways and carrying the body through a parking lot. After securing Halabi’s body, his followers set out on a funeral procession from the town of Mas’ade to nearby Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.