WHO says nearly 10,000 patients in Gaza are in urgent need of evacuation for medical care
World Health Organization reports 9,000 people in Gaza Strip are in urgent need of evacuation for emergency medical care due to the extreme depletion of healthcare facilities in war-torn Palestinian territory
It is estimated that 9,000 people in the Gaza Strip are in dire need of evacuation to get emergency medical care as The World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief said on Saturday that the terrible scenario has resulted from the extreme depletion of healthcare facilities in the war-torn Palestinian territory, which is now down to only 10 hospitals with meager operations.
“Thousands of patients continue to be deprived of health care with only 10 hospitals minimally functional across the whole of Gaza,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, highlighting the seriousness of the situation.
Gaza had 36 hospitals before the crisis started, showing how severely the continuing conflicts have affected the region’s healthcare system.
Numerous life-threatening situations, such as cancer treatments, bombardment injuries, renal dialysis, and other chronic sickness care, need an immediate medical evacuation. Tedros stressed that since the WHO’s first evaluation at the beginning of March, there are now many more people in need of an immediate evacuation than there were 8,000 individuals.
The intensification of hostilities, along with Israel’s ongoing bombing operations, has severely damaged Gaza’s medical infrastructure. Furthermore, ground warfare has escalated in the last several weeks, often intruding onto hospital property. These medical facilities have been used as a refuge for thousands of conflict-displaced people amid the pandemonium.
The near-complete siege of Gaza, which severely limits the flow of humanitarian supplies necessary for the well-being of its 2.4 million residents, makes the situation much worse. NGOs and the UN, among other international organizations, have charged Israel for obstructing the delivery of vital supplies and escalating the humanitarian catastrophe in the area.
Israel has reaffirmed its determination to eliminate Hamas, the terrorist organization that launched the unprecedented strike on Oct. 7 that started hostilities, in response to the growing war. Both sides have suffered greatly as a result of the retaliatory campaign, with civilian infrastructure suffering the most from the increasing number of fatalities.
Tedros emphasized the urgent need for vulnerable patients to get care in a timely manner and asked Israel to accelerate permissions for medical evacuations. He underscored the gravity of the situation, emphasizing that “every moment matters” in order to meet the people impacted by the conflict’s urgent healthcare requirements.
Half of the patients were receiving cancer treatment when they were transferred from Gaza to East Jerusalem or the West Bank every day before the fighting. But these crucial medical deliveries have been significantly interrupted by the increase of hostilities, which has made the already grave humanitarian situation in the area worse.
Source: AFP
