2023-10-26 08:50:29
Al Jazeera Net correspondents
Gaza- “The condition of hospitals does not allow for the provision of the easiest medical services to the wounded and sick,” is one of many phrases used by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip to warn of the seriousness of the health situation, until it reached the point of declaring “total collapse.”
This comes in light of the intensification of the Israeli aggression in its third week, accompanied by an applied blockade and the prevention of the entry of fuel since the seventh of this month.
The Ministry of Health announced that 12 hospitals and 32 primary care centers were out of service, as a result of direct Israeli targeting, or their inability to continue operating due to running out of fuel.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said that the health system has reached the worst stage in its history, and he confirmed – to Al Jazeera Net – that the Zionist occupation deliberately weakens the health system through direct targeting, threats, evacuation warnings, and fuel bans.
The Ministry of Health says that the health staff does not exceed 30% of the original staff (Al Jazeera)
Systematic targeting
The Ministry of Health and local authorities in Gaza documented the death of 57 health personnel, and the wounding of 100 others with varying injuries.
Although the Ministry doubled its clinical capacity due to the huge number of wounded as a result of the aggression, Ashraf Al-Qudra says, “We deal with this clinical capacity with a human staff that does not exceed 30% of the original staff.”
The Ministry estimates the occupancy rate of beds in hospitals at more than 150%, as hospitals were forced to set up tents to accommodate the victims of the aggression and their numbers increasing moment by moment, and the latest official update of the martyrs indicates the death toll of more than 6,500, and more than 17,500 wounded.
Ashraf explains the large deficit in the medical staff by the occupation targeting a large part of it and displacing another large part, which prevented this staff from being able to reach health facilities.
Unsafe atmosphere
In Ashraf’s opinion, what the health system is facing falls within a systematic policy of the occupation, which reflects the extent of the targeting that caused damage to 57 health institutions, and the destruction of more than 25 ambulances and their out of service.
This targeting also created an unsafe atmosphere around hospitals with intense bombing, disrupting work and making it fraught with great dangers.
Among the crimes of direct targeting of medical staff, the crime of bombing and destroying the home of the director of Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital, Kamal Khattab, seriously wounding him, and killing his wife, two daughters, and his young son, stands out, according to Ashraf.
This deteriorating reality prompted the Ministry of Health to appeal to its retired staff and volunteers in all health specialties to join work in hospitals and ambulance units.
Israel refuses the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip, where the wheel of life is regarding to stop turning (Al Jazeera)
call for help
After the complete collapse of the health system, Ashraf repeated a distress call issued by the Ministry several times recently, stressing the need to work to ensure an immediate flow of medical aid and fuel to restore work in the life-saving departments.
He stressed that the introduction of aid would be important if it included “fuel and our urgent needs in emergency departments, central care, and operating rooms for all hospitals in the Gaza Strip.”
He appealed to the “brothers” in Egypt to open the Rafah crossing, ensure the entry and flow of fuel and emergency health aid, and enable the wounded to travel to receive the necessary and appropriate treatment.
The delay in responding to distress calls will cause a dire health and humanitarian catastrophe, which will inflict large numbers of wounded on the convoy of martyrs, and threaten the lives of 140 wounded and sick people whose lives are tied to respirators.
It will also threaten the lives of 1,100 patients with kidney failure, including 38 infants and 130 newborns in premature infants’ wards in hospitals, according to a Ministry of Health spokesman.
Under a tripartite agreement with Egypt and the United States, the occupying state allowed the entry of 4 aid convoys through the Rafah land crossing (the only outlet for the Gaza Strip to the outside world through Egyptian territory), which included 62 trucks, most of which were loaded with desalinated drinking water, canned food, and a limited number of medicines and consumables. Medical.
Israel insists on refusing to allow any amount of fuel to enter the Strip, where the wheel of life is regarding to stop turning completely, including the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has warned that if it does not obtain fuel soon, it will be forced to stop. Its operations in Gaza.
Running out of fuel threatens the lives of 1,100 patients with kidney failure, including 38 children and 130 newborns (Archyde.com)
Less than needed
United Nations data indicate that the Gaza Strip needs at least 160,000 liters of fuel per day.
According to the head of the government media office, Salama Marouf, the aid that entered the sector was much less than its need in normal conditions, as more than 500 trucks loaded with various needs were entering it daily, including 45 fuel trucks.
Salama told Al Jazeera Net that this aid will not be able to change the humanitarian catastrophe that the Gaza Strip is experiencing, especially with the continued prevention of the supply of fuel.
He urged the necessity of permanently opening the Rafah crossing and inaugurating a safe corridor that operates around the clock to fully provide the missing humanitarian and service needs, and enable the wounded of the aggression to travel for treatment, in light of the inability to provide appropriate medical care in Gaza’s hospitals currently.
In an official statement, Salama refuted allegations that he described as allegations and lies made by the occupation army spokesman, which he published on his account on the (X) platform regarding the presence of an estimated quantity of half a million liters of fuel at the Rafah crossing, and in which he denied the existence of a crisis within the sector as a result of fuel running out.
He confirmed that this quantity is in tanks inside the crossing, and it has been reserved since the first day of the aggression, and its price was paid in advance by the owners of gas stations, and it is impossible to access it, extract it, or benefit from it. Due to the occupation’s threats and its deliberate prevention of any amount of fuel from reaching health and service centres.
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