Palestinians are experiencing “unspeakable horrors” in the north of the Gaza Strip, denounced this Saturday, October 20, the acting head of the UN for humanitarian aid, Joyce Msuya.
“Terrible news from northern Gaza, where Palestinians continue to suffer unspeakable horrors under the siege of Israeli forces,” Joyce Msuya said on the social network X.
“These atrocities must stop,” he urged.
Israel has been carrying out an air and ground military offensive in northern Gaza since October 7 to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping there. The siege of this devastated area has caused tens of thousands of people to flee and more than 400 people to flee. died within two weeks, according to local emergency services.
“In Jabaliya, people are trapped under rubble and rescuers cannot reach them,” he added.
“Tens of thousands of Palestinians are forced to move. Hospitals, overwhelmed by patients, are being exhausted,” he described.
He recalled that international humanitarian law establishes that civilians, wounded or sick, as well as health personnel and their facilities are protected. “International humanitarian law must be respected,” he insisted.
Two dead in a bombed hospital
According to the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, two patients died on Saturday at the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia, which was surrounded and shelled by Israeli forces since dawn.
The Indonesian hospital’s generator was hit, depriving it of electricity “which caused the death of two patients in critical condition,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Hospitilities around hospitals can quickly leave them inoperable by making access difficult. We can only ask firmly again: health structures must be protected,” he said in a press release.
The WHO is planning a mission to Kamal Adwan Hospital this Sunday, October 20, to bring diesel, medicine, blood and food, and transfer critically ill patients to Al-Shifa Hospital.
“It is vital that Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals remain operational,” he said, demanding access for patients and health workers and an immediate ceasefire.
“Israeli forces increased their pressure” on the Indonesian hospital and the Al-Awda hospital, Muhannad Hadi, UN coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said the day before, but the patients had nowhere else to go.
Kamal Adwan treats two-thirds of the more than 370 patients hospitalized in northern Gaza, but his resources have never been so limited in terms of beds, medicines, diesel and supplies.
“Collective punishment imposed on Palestinians in Gaza
Since Friday, UN requests for access to the northern Gaza Strip to rescue “dozens of wounded trapped under the rubble have not received a response from Israeli forces,” he added.
The NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also called on Israeli forces to “immediately stop attacks on hospitals in northern Gaza.”
“This is purely and simply collective punishment imposed on Palestinians in Gaza, who must choose between forced displacement or death. There are fears that it will never end,” said Anna Halford, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza.
“Israel’s allies bear a great responsibility for this situation created by unwavering support for the war,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
