2023-10-14 16:06:47
The Director General of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salima, revealed in an exclusive interview with Sky News Arabia the details of the difficult health and humanitarian conditions at the present time, amid the Israeli army’s calls for residents of the Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes and head south, in light of expectations that Imminent ground attack.
Abu Salima pointed out that “the situation is very difficult, as the wounded and martyrs are still arriving in very large numbers to the hospital all the time.”
Al-Shifa Medical Complex is considered the largest hospital in the densely populated Strip, serving more than a million people inside Gaza.
The United Nations strongly called on Israel to cancel its orders for more than a million people living in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes and head south, to avoid what might turn what is already a tragedy into a catastrophic situation.
The United Nations and other organizations warned of a catastrophe if such a large number of people were forced to flee, and said that the blockade should be lifted to allow aid to enter.
Regarding medical supplies and consumables and the repercussions of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex explained that the current situation includes: “Israeli forces have been preventing water, electricity, energy, and food from the Gaza Strip for 7 days, and thus this has had a grave impact on all hospitals.
– Al-Shifa Hospital is out of control; Because the number of wounded people who come to us is greater than the hospital’s capacity, as it accommodates 500 beds, and there are now 1,000 wounded and sick people, and all the operating rooms are occupied.
– Many patients are now on the roads and on the ground, and we cannot provide service to them, and every minute a new patient comes to us.
– The medical consumables we had ran out, and the medical teams have not left their workplaces for 7 days.
– Despite this, there is also targeting of ambulances and medical teams, as Israel targeted 25 ambulances that were destroyed, and caused the death of 15 paramedics during the past days, and there are fears that ambulances will move to evacuate the wounded, and this is what all international norms condemn.
– Gaza has become a disaster area, and medical aid must be brought into the Strip, field hospitals must be established, and medical staff support must be provided to save the situation.
– The situation is not easy and there is no choice but to remain within our lands, and we will not accept Tel Aviv’s calls for displacement. Because realistically we will not be able to do that, as ambulances come to hospitals every minute, and morgues no longer have room to place new martyrs.
– The fuel needed to operate the generators is enough for us until tomorrow, Sunday or Monday at the latest, and if those generators are cut off and fuel is not provided for them, this hospital will be a mass grave and not a place for treating the wounded.
– There are 120 wounded people on artificial respirators, as well as the nursery department, and these devices cannot work without electricity, which threatens to stop the oxygen stations, and there will be a real humanitarian catastrophe, and fears of the spread of epidemics in the Gaza Strip because the municipalities are not working, and the displaced people’s situation is difficult.
“I have never seen such a scene in my life. I have witnessed all the wars on the Gaza Strip and the attacks, and this has never happened before.”
While the United Nations strongly called for the cancellation of any such order, to avoid what might turn what is already a tragedy into a catastrophic situation, the World Health Organization considered that a mass evacuation “would represent a catastrophe for patients, health workers and other civilians who would remain in the area or be stuck in… During the mass exodus movement.
The organization said that with air strikes continuing and borders closed, civilians have no safe place to take refuge, and nearly half of Gaza’s population is under 18 years of age, and with supplies of safe food, clean water and health services running out, and without adequate shelter, the risk of injury to children and adults will increase. , including the elderly, with diseases.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health informed the organization that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable patients from hospitals without endangering their lives, as these patients have serious injuries and some of them depend on devices to survive, and transporting them in the midst of hostilities exposes their lives to direct danger.
The World Health Organization called for the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor to safely deliver logistical and medical supplies to healthcare facilities in Gaza, including through the Rafah crossing.
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