2024-01-10 17:52:10
WORLD – WHO cancels medical supply mission for fourth time in northern Gaza, citing continued threats. Israeli fighting and bombing are jeopardizing medical supplies, causing staff shortages and threatening the functioning of hospitals. The situation is getting worse, with staff evacuations and increasing difficulties in accessing health care.
The World Health Organization (WHO) canceled on Sunday January 6, for the fourth time since December, a medical supply mission to hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip due to the lack of security guarantees. This is the twelfth time that she has been unable to access this area of the enclave. “Intense shelling, restrictions on movement and communications blackouts make the regular and safe delivery of medical supplies throughout the Gaza Strip, particularly in the north, almost impossible,” the agency said, reporting “ severe staff shortages” due to staff leaving “due to evacuation orders and insecurity.”
Northern Gaza Strip remains inaccessible
The mission focused on delivering urgent medical supplies to enable five hospitals in the northern enclave to remain operational. Additionally, patients cannot access health centers “due to unsafe conditions.” “Without adequate health care, the suffering in Gaza increases by the hour,” reads a statement, which calls for “sustained humanitarian access” throughout the enclave, protection of civilians and health care. health, as well as an immediate ceasefire.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus regretted his office’s decision and said he was “shocked” by the “scale of health needs and devastation” in northern Gaza, where more than 22 800 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings. “Urgent, safe and unhindered access to the region is needed to deliver humanitarian assistance. Any further delays will result in more death and suffering for too many people,” the WHO chief said on his Twitter profile.
Risk of collapse of hospital services in the south
WHO officials on Tuesday (January 9) expressed concern over the risk of collapse of hospital services in the southern and central Gaza Strip, after hundreds of patients and medical staff fled to save their life. Only a third of Gaza’s hospitals are functioning, some partially, after months of Israeli bombing as part of the military campaign against Hamas in response to the October 7 attacks.
Fighting has intensified in central and southern areas, increasing pressure on overburdened hospitals that remain open. “What we are seeing is really worrying around Al-Aqsa Hospital and an escalation of hostilities very close to the European Hospital in Gaza and very close to the Nasser Hospital,” said Sean Casey, coordinator of the Gaza medical teams. WHO emergency in Gaza, during a press conference held in Geneva by videoconference.
“We cannot lose these health facilities. It is absolutely necessary to protect them. This is the last line of secondary and tertiary health care that Gaza has; from north to south, this care falls, hospital after hospital “, did he declare. He added that patients were risking their lives to go to hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younes on Tuesday due to continued fighting.
Massive flight of staff and patients
During a visit to Al-Aqsa in central Gaza two days ago, he found that 70% of staff had abandoned their posts. That same night, hundreds of patients healthy enough to flee did the same. Many of the staff at Nasser Hospital in the town of Khan Yunis also joined the hundreds of thousands of Gazans crowded into shelters at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, he added. There was only one doctor for more than 100 burn victims.
“What we continue to see is that the healthcare system is suffering: healthcare workers cannot go to their workplace to treat patients because they fear for their lives. Patients and their families who are afraid to go to the hospital because they might die on the way. We are seeing the health system collapse very quickly,” he said.
On January 7, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) evacuated its staff from a hospital in central Gaza, saying the situation had become too dangerous. Some team members, living in the neighborhood, could not even leave their homes due to constant threats from drones and snipers.
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