Thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip need urgent medical attention, either for injuries in the context of the ongoing conflict or for chronic illnesses, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned this Wednesday.
The Egyptian authorities today authorized the opening of the Rafah border post for exclusively humanitarian purposes, that is, for the transport of people with medical needs.
In a statement, the WHO welcomed Egypt’s decision to accept and treat “81 wounded and sick people from the Gaza Strip.”
At the same time, he pointed out that this group is only a small part of the people who need urgent help, that is, “numerous children”, in that Palestinian territory that has been the target of intense and regular Israeli bombings since October 7. The Islamist movement Hamas (considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union) attacked Israel, killing about 1,400 people and taking 240 hostages.
More than a thousand patients “need dialysis to stay alive” and more than two thousand need to receive cancer treatments, the WHO stated, also estimating that 45,000 heart patients and 60,000 diabetics need health care.
“These patients must be able to have permanent access to healthcare in Gaza,” the WHO insists, stressing that hospitals and other healthcare units must be protected from bombing and not diverted for military purposes.
Before the October 7 attacks, one hundred patients a day needed access to specialized health services outside the Gaza Strip.
The WHO and other United Nations agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations on the ground, are demanding a ceasefire from Israel and, in particular, an end to the blockade of fuel needed to power hospital generators.
So far, Israel has refused to allow fuel into the Gaza Strip, considering that this would represent a high security risk.
Today, for the first time, Egypt authorized the opening of the Rafah checkpoint, the only one in the besieged Palestinian territory that is not in the hands of Israel, through which children, women and the elderly already pass.
The Egyptian authorities have prepared a field hospital to receive injured Palestinians, and serious cases or those requiring additional treatment and special care are transferred to other hospitals.
Palestinian authorities published a list of the names, nationalities and passport numbers of people covered by the exceptional opening of the Rafah border post.
According to foreign diplomats, this list includes citizens of 44 countries, including employees of 28 foreign agencies and organizations located in the Gaza Strip.
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health of the Gaza government, led by the Islamist group Hamas, behind the attacks on Israel on October 7, told AFP that Egypt received a list of more than four thousand people who need health care. careful.
“We hope they can leave in the next few hours, because they need surgical interventions that cannot be performed in Gaza. We must save them,” he appealed.
More than 8,500 people were killed and thousands more were injured in the bombings with which Israel responded to the attack launched by Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, when it expelled the Fatah party, which governs the West Bank, from the territory.
With around 360 square kilometers and one of the most densely populated territories in the world, the Gaza Strip, where 2.4 million people are trying to escape Israel’s intense and successive bombardments, is currently without water, electricity or communications (telephone or internet) and practically without food, after the current siege.
Source: TSF
