The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on Thursday held the Israeli occupation forces fully responsible for the lives and safety of the doctors who were detained on Wednesday.
It announced that it will stop coordinating with World Health Organization (WHO) on the rest of evacuations until the international agency submits a report on the Israeli detention of medical personnel and until they are all released.
The spokesman of the Ministry Ashraf al-Qudra said in a press conference at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis “The United Nations bears full responsibility for this event and we await appropriate and urgent measures on their part to address this situation”.
He pointed out that they were informed by the United Nations about coordination with WHO to evacuate those who were present in the Al-Shifa Medical Complex which is subject to Israeli siege raids and destruction and were stranded inside the hospital with no food water medicine electricity or security.
Al-Qudra explained that a convoy from the United Nations represented by WHO moved on Wednesday to evacuate some of the patients and medical staff who were subjected to the most horrific Nazi practices in addition to starvation.
“We were surprised that this convoy was stopped by the Israeli checkpoint separating the north from south of Gaza for about seven hours during which Israeli occupation forces maltreated the patients their companions and the medical staff before arresting a number of them including Director General of Al-Shifa Medical Complex Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya” Al-Qudra said.
He pointed out that WHO has not yet submitted any report to the ministry to clarify what happened including the numbers and names of detainees stressing that the inability to communicate with Al-Shifa Medical Complex made them unable to know who was arrested.
The Ministry’s spokesman expressed his concerns over potential liquidation of those detainees.
