ANKARA, (PIC)
A Palestinian health official has said that the Palestinians wounded in Gaza as a result of the Israeli war will need to undergo about half a million surgical procedures when the fighting ends.
“There are more than 94,000 wounded persons in Gaza and each one of them needs an average of three to four surgical procedures post-war,” Abdul-Latif al-Hajj, assistant deputy minister of health in Gaza, explained in a recent interview with Anadolu news agency.
Al-Hajj added that the healthcare system in Gaza faces major challenges, including the loss of more than 70 percent of its clinical capacity due to the bombing of hospitals and clinics.
According to the Palestinian official, 14 hospitals in Gaza are currently in operation, but only four of them are major centers and the rest are small non-governmental clinics.
He pointed out that more than 50 percent of essential medicines and 60 percent of laboratory materials are currently unavailable in Gaza, adding that more than 880 medical workers had been killed since the beginning of the war.
