By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SvennoJ on 28 March 2024
Edit Thread

Unimaginable’ conditions: UN says few hospitals remain functional in Gaza

Two-thirds of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are “non-functional” while those that remain open are either “minimally” or “partially” functional, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reports that the healthcare system in northern Gaza “has been largely destroyed” and is on the “brink of collapse” in the south.

Details contained in the latest UNOCHA situation report are grim:

  • Fifteen malnourished children a day are being received at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is struggling to maintain services amid a lack of water, food and sanitation.
  • Al-Shifa Hospital has been under siege for 10 days, and Israeli forces have confined staff and patients to a building used by human resources, which “is not set up for healthcare provision”.
  • Israeli forces have dumped dirt in the entrances of the al-Amal Hospital in southern Khan Younis after it ordered the hospital to be emptied of staff and patients. On Tuesday, the hospital and the nearby Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters ceased to function.
  • Conditions at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis have been described as “unimaginable” and “beyond comprehension”.

Doctors speak of catastrophic conditions at Gaza hospitals

Tanya Haj-Hassan is a paediatric intensive care doctor from Jordan. She’s part of a team of seven medics volunteering at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, for a period of two weeks.

“People are tired,” she told Al Jazeera. “Our team has been doing this for five days and we’re exhausted. I can’t imagine what the Gaza team who has been here for 162 days, doing this 24/7 without resources, is dealing with.”

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has 800 patients but only 160 beds. Many are forced to lie on mattresses or blankets in the corridors. The few members of staff left are working around the clock, while often coping with their own grief.

Mustafa Abu Qassim, a nurse from Jordan, said the “medical teams are working hard. Most of them have lost their children, their wives, or their parents. But despite this, they are carrying on with their work. This shows the psychological pressure they are facing.”

WHO says only 10 hospitals partially operational in Gaza

Only 10 out of 36 hospitals remain operational in the Gaza Strip, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), after the al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis ceased functioning on Tuesday.

“The health system is barely surviving,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

Israeli forces this week surrounded al-Amal and Nasser hospitals while pressing on with their siege of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the strip. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said one of its staff members was killed when Israeli tanks suddenly pushed back into areas around the two hospitals in Khan Younis amid heavy bombardment and gunfire.

“Once more, WHO demands an immediate end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza, and calls for protection of health staff, patients, and civilians,” Tedros said.



Doctors in northern Gaza sound alarm on infant malnutrition

At Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, receiving malnourished infants into the intensive care unit has become a new normal. “The cases I deal with in the intensive care department are malnutrition cases, they come with evident signs of severe dehydration,” nurse Ahmed al-Ali told Al Jazeera.

“We got used to receiving such cases in large numbers every day. The situation will deteriorate and get worse. I see similar cases every day – it’s a daily struggle.”

At least 27 children have died of starvation, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF in Gaza, described seeing “paper thin” children in a hospital in northern Gaza and incubators full of underweight babies from malnourished mothers.