GENEVA, (PIC)
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, food, and medical supplies to Gaza, and to allow the urgent evacuation of about 700 seriously ill and injured patients for treatment outside the Strip.
The Director-General of the organization, Tedros Adhanom, on Tuesday called on Israel to deliver the necessary fuel for the operation of health facilities, hospitals, and ambulances.
Adhanom explained that the health sector alone in Gaza needs between 50,000 to 60,000 liters of fuel per day, while the organization has succeeded in delivering small quantities of fuel to hospitals in the past few days, but it is not enough at all.
He stressed that “the situation in Gaza has become more than disastrous,” noting the decrease in the number of functioning hospitals and primary health care centers, and that what remains of them has been damaged, as well as a decrease in vaccination campaigns against diseases, while the Al-Awda Hospital remains under siege.
The UN official stressed that the hostile acts near the Kamal Edwan Hospital have undermined its ability to provide medical services and made it difficult to access.
Adhanom added that “military operations in Rafah are ongoing, as well as the increasing deaths and injuries, and the people have only two choices, either to stay in the areas that are being attacked, or to leave for other places that are not safe either.”
For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Health called on the international community, international human rights institutions, and all health organizations on Tuesday evening to increase pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities to stop their deliberate aggression against the health sector in all its components.
The ministry said in a statement, “The violent and deliberate aggression of the occupation against the Kamal Adwan Hospital north of Gaza forced the medical staff and patients to evacuate it under bombardment.”
The ministry added in its statement that the occupation forces targeted the hospital, which had 150 medical personnel of various specializations, dozens of patients and the injured in intensive care and surgery, and a number of children from incubators.
It mentioned that the teams worked to transfer the patients and the wounded under extremely difficult conditions to other treatment centers, which posed a great danger to their health condition, in addition to the constant shelling around the hospital and the roads leading to it.
The ministry confirmed that the Israeli aggression on the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the Al-Awda Hospital is added to a long series of the deliberate daily Israeli criminality against the health system in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Coinciding with this disastrous health situation, the United Nations announced the suspension of the distribution of food supplies in the Rafah area in the south of the Gaza Strip, due to the shortage of supplies and the lack of security.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are now residing in Rafah, most of them displaced, and they are exposed to the bombardment and raids carried out by the Israeli occupation forces, while they face the health disaster, starvation, and the siege.
Since October 7, 2023, more than 500 medical personnel have been martyred in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the latest of whom is the martyr doctor Osaeid Jabarin, who was killed by the occupation forces in Jenin while on his way to work at the Jenin government hospital.
