Dialysis patients at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital risk lives amid shortages
The dialysis unit at the al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City is experiencing a severe crisis due to a critical shortage of medical supplies and essential equipment, Al Jazeera Arabic has reported.
This threatens to halt treatment for 139 dialysis patients who need two to three treatments per day, according to medical personnel at the hospital.
Amid the ongoing deterioration of the health sector in the Gaza Strip and the general lack of medicine supplies, dialysis patients also lack blood for transfusions due to the high number of injured patients requiring this resource.
Israel’s Gaza route restrictions limiting aid deliveries: UN
A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says while humanitarian operations in Gaza have increased since the ceasefire began earlier this month, deliveries remain constrained by continued Israeli restrictions.
Farhan Haq said the UN’s humanitarian office reported that aid collection has been “limited” due to the “rerouting ordered by the Israeli authorities”.
“You will recall that convoys are now forced to go through the Philadelphi Corridor along the border with Egypt, and then up the narrow coastal road. This road is narrow, damaged and heavily congested,” Haq told reporters.
“Movement remains slower, even after the World Food Programme repaired the road. Additional crossings and internal routes are needed to expand collections and response.”
- More than 500,000 Palestinians have received World Food Programme food assistance through 43 distribution points in Gaza – a “major increase” that still only covers about 35 percent of a monthly target of 1.6 million people.
- In the occupied West Bank, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) has documented at least 126 Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians that have caused casualties or damage during this year’s olive harvest season.
- “In total, 124 Palestinians have been injured,” Haq said.
Israel says it has received captives’ bodies from Red Cross
Hamas’s armed wing released two Israeli captives’ bodies in Gaza a short while ago.
Netanyahu’s office says the bodies have been handed over to the Israeli army and Shin Bet and will be brought into Israel. The remains will then be transferred to Israel’s national forensic institute for identification.
“The effort to return our abductees continues continuously and will not stop until the last abductee is returned,” the Israeli prime minister’s office added.
Red Cross vehicles carrying the bodies of two Israeli captives make their way towards the Kissufim crossing with Israel, in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah
Hamas still urging Israel to allow bulldozers into Gaza to retrieve bodies
With this handover, there will be 11 Israeli captives’ bodies still to be handed over to the Israeli side. Israel is urging Hamas to uphold the agreement and take necessary steps to release and return all the deceased hostages.
Hamas, from its side … [says it is] still facing different logistical and operational challenges regarding the retrieval of the bodies, specifically in areas that have been impacted by the Israeli bombardment.
Hamas has been calling for the entry of heavy bulldozers and machines in order to facilitate the process of recovering bodies. But on the ground, Israel is still accusing Hamas of deliberately procrastinating the release of the bodies.
Israeli forces demolish houses in eastern Gaza City
The Israeli army is carrying out the demolition of homes east of the Tuffah and Shujayea neighbourhoods in eastern Gaza City, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have reported.
Israeli airstrikes target towns east of Khan Younis
Israeli warplanes have launched airstrikes on the towns of Abasan al-Kabira and Bani Suheila, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have reported.
The airstrikes come a day after Israel attacked Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza in what it said in a statement was to target a “terrorist infrastructure site”.
