Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the the United States must use its influence to halt Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
“The U.S should increase its pressure on Israel. The West should increase pressure on Israel… It’s vital for us to secure a ceasefire,” said Erdogan.
“The most important country that needs to be involved is the United States, which has influence on Israel,” he added.
Also, Erdogan asserted that the U.S must accept Gaza as Palestinian land.
He said, “We cannot agree with Biden if he approaches [the war] by seeing Gaza as the land of occupying settlers or Israel, rather than the land of the Palestinian people.”
Currently, health services in the besieged enclave has collapsed.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, disclosed that al-Shifa Hospital is completely out of service, and cannot provide any treatment even to the patients inside the facility, due to constant Israeli attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) also announced that al-Quds Hospital is no longer operational due to a lack of fuel and a power outage.
Al-Ahli is now the only functioning hospital in north Gaza, even with that, Palestinian surgeon, Ghassan Abu Sitta said the has run out of blood.
The number of deaths in the ongoing Israeli military attacks since October 7 has surpassed 11,100, including more than 8,000 children and women, the government media office in Gaza said on Sunday.
“Due to the targeting of hospitals and the prevention of entry of any of the bodies or wounded, the Ministry of Health was unable, on Saturday, to issue accurate statistics for the numbers of dead and injured during the past hours,” the media office said in a statement.
“We recall that the occupation [forces] committed more than 1,130 massacres, and the number of casualties reached more than 11,100 dead, including more than 8,000 children and women, and the number of wounded was more than 28,000,” it said.
ICRC Chief Asserts Need For Hospitals To Be Protected
Speaking with a news agency, Robert Mardini, Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross, stated that Gaza hospitals treating hundreds of wounded people cannot be targeted under any circumstances.
“Hospitals are to be absolutely protected at all times,” Mardini said.
“The onus and the obligation are always on the parties of the conflict not to use hospitals as a battle zone,” he added.
“Even if a hospital is used by a party as a launching pad for attacks, it does not justify automatically that hospitals be targeted at a time when women, children and men are being treated. Those are sanctuaries to be protected. We reiterate our call for all parties to stay away from hospitals.”
Robert Mardini
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) disclosed that it is concerned more babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at al-Shifa Hospital will die soon.
“We are deeply concerned by uncritical media reporting regarding the Israeli military’s statement that it will help move premature babies trapped at the hospital to a ‘safer hospital’,” Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said.
“The only safe option to save these babies would be for Israel to cease its assault and besiegement of al-Shifa, to allow fuel to reach the hospital, and to ensure the surviving parents of these babies can be reunited with them.”
Medical Aid for Palestinians
Responding to the Israeli forces’ demand to evacuate al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra told a news agency that “It is absolutely impossible to evacuate those wounded.”
“If the occupation wants to evacuate the complex, it can only take the patients out to hospitals in the Arab Republic of Egypt because it is absolutely impossible to evacuate those wounded,” he said.
Al-Qudra said a number of children died when they were forced by Israeli forces to evacuate onto the streets because there were no life support devices.
“Therefore, we do not want to repeat this crime against the 650 patients inside the Shifa Medical Complex. The complex cannot be evacuated of patients to hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip, which are also crowded with the wounded and will also stop working in less than two days because of the lack of fuel in their generators.”
Ashraf al-Qudra
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