Gaza’s healthcare system is in a “catastrophic situation”, with no operational hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip and only nine hospitals across the entire territory, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
“Our officials are running out of words to describe the catastrophic situation our patients and healthcare professionals are facing,” WHO Representative to the Occupied Palestinian Territories Richard Peeperkorn said at a virtual press conference today.
According to him, only nine of the 36 hospitals in the entire Gaza Strip are currently operational, following 246 attacks on health facilities.
The only hospital still open in northern Gaza, al-Ahli, is still treating some patients admitted there, but is no longer admitting new ones, Richard Peeperkorn explained, stressing that “the dead bodies caused by the most recent attacks are piling up. in the courtyard, because they cannot be buried safely and with dignity.”
Peeperkorn recalled that more than twenty hospital workers were detained by Israeli forces on Monday, and although six of them have already been released, they were forced to go to southern Gaza.
The situation of those still in detention is unknown.
On Wednesday, WHO arranged a joint mission between the organization and other UN agencies to reach al-Ahli and al-Shifa hospitals – another hospital that still has patients but is no longer admitting new ones – to seize medical supplies, in which was the third operation of this type since the end of the humanitarian ceasefire.
Al-Ahli “is in complete chaos, completely overloaded and looks like a disaster-stricken area,” Peeperkorn described.
“WHO reiterates its call on all parties to respect international humanitarian law regarding the protection of health workers, patients, health facilities and ambulances,” the official stressed.
The WHO has so far counted 246 attacks on health facilities in Gaza, including attacks on 26 of 36 hospitals and others on 76 ambulances, which left 586 dead and 748 injured.
According to data from Gaza authorities, monitored by Hamas, and cited by the WHO, the conflict between Israel and the Islamist group, which began on October 7, has already left at least 20,000 dead (1% of Gaza’s population) and 52,500 people causes. injured and 7,600 people missing, many of whom were buried under the rubble.
At least 136 UN workers (belonging to the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency, UNRWA) and 198 doctors were killed in the two and a half months of hostilities.
Source: DN
