World Health Organization (WHO) representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Peeperkorn, has made a plea for daily, orderly, unimpeded and safe medical evacuations of critically injured and sick patients into Egypt.
He noted that a system needed to be set up to get priority cases out of the besieged Palestinian territory.
At the moment, twenty-five out of thirty-six hospitals in the Gaza Strip are not functioning and the remainder are struggling to provide services.
“This is clearly not enough to support the endless needs arising due to the hostilities,” Peeperkorn, averred.
Addressing a press briefing in Geneva via video-link from Jerusalem, Peeperkorn stated that 50 to 60 patients ought to be transferred into Egypt daily, “where they will get, and they deserve, the right treatment and care.”
He asserted that moving priority patients to Egypt “will also relieve part of the overwhelmed current health sector so that we can address the other needs in a better way.”
Meanwhile, Israel continued its raid of Al-Shifa Hospital as Israeli troops carried out building-by-building searches at the hospital, on Friday, amid a communications blackout in Gaza.
Peeperkorn said, “We are, as WHO, extremely worried for the safety of patients, health and workers, not just at Al-Shifa but other hospitals as well.”
“Health facilities, health workers, ambulances and patients must be safeguarded,” he added.
Also, the WHO representative divulged that prior to the conflict, there were around 3,500 hospital beds across Gaza, and now there are an estimated 1,400.
“Based on our plans, the needs at the moment would be 5,000 beds,” he said.
He noted that the communications blackout had made WHO’s contact with its staff on the ground in Gaza “very problematic”.
In addition, Peeperkorn said that he was extremely concerned about the spread of diseases in the Palestinian territory, including acute respiratory infections, chicken pox and skin rashes.
Moreso, he disclosed that WHO wants to set up field hospitals in Gaza, but he did not answer whether Israel had given any indication that it would agree to the evacuation and the establishment of field hospitals.
Al-Shifa Hospital; “A Big Prison And A Mass Grave”
The Director of al-Shifa, Muhammed Abu Salmiya stated that the medical compound has become a “big prison” and a “mass grave” for all those inside.
Salmiya told a news agency that there are 7,000 people in the hospital and staff are still working to help patients but they “lost all those who were in the intensive care unit.”
“We are left with nothing, no power, no food, no water. with every passing minute, we are losing a life,” Salmiya disclosed.
“Overnight we lost 22 persons, [and] for the past three days the hospital has been kept under siege,” he added.
He added that they have appealed to leave the hospital but are being denied by Israeli forces.
“It’s a war crime. A full-fledged war crime,” he said.
Additionally, Salmiya stated that newborn babies require immediate attention, but they are running out of medical supplies.
“On some occasions, we are forced to leave patients to die because we are helpless, we cannot perform any surgical operations on them, the least we can do is give them some painkillers to let those victims die in peace.”
Muhammed Abu Salmiya
He added that many newborn premature babies died as the incubators ran out of oxygen. The Israeli army said earlier this week that it would be providing incubators to al-Shifa Hospital, but Salmiya says this is a lie.
“The Israeli occupation forces claim to have provided incubators to the hospital, but this is not true; this is false. In addition, we are not in need of incubators; we have already incubators in the hospital, yet we are out of fuel to generate electricity [for the incubators].”
Muhammed Abu Salmiya
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