Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been launching a massive aggression on the Gaza Strip, targeting all aspects of life, including trees, properties, and human beings.
In this context, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced that 500 health workers were killed since the start of Israeli aggression. The ministry pointed out that 138 nurses were also murdered during the attacks.
“Here in Palestine and in Gaza in particular, this day passes as the Israeli occupation has killed 138 nurses. This year’s International Nurses Day is exceptional, and it is our right to name this year the Year of Nursing,” ministry spokesperson Khalil al-Daqran said during a news conference marking International Nurses Day.
He drew attention to the fact that the Palestinian people had been a victim of a war that left over 70,000 people wounded and over 40,000 dead or missing as well as forced displacement, starvation, arrests, and mass massacres.
“Nurses, midwives, and medical teams are an integral part of the fabric of the Palestinian people. They were the victims who played their national and humanitarian role to save the lives of the wounded and the sick,” said al-Daqran.
“They fulfilled their professional oath in a year where records were broken in terms of the amount of treatment provided under circumstances where the medical personnel were martyred, injured, displaced in tents or detained in Israeli racist prisons, with the number of medical personnel reaching 500 martyrs, 1,500 wounded and 312 detainees,” he added.
“Over the course of more than seven months, medical teams were forced to make extraordinary efforts to follow up with victims in a situation where the health system broke down due to the occupation’s destruction of 33 hospitals, 53 health centers, 133 ambulances, and a shortage of supplies and medications.”
Al-Daqran called on the “international community and free people of the world to protect medical personnel and health institutions and to criminalize attacks against them.”
He also urged unions, international organisations, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to send medical and nursing teams to support health teams in Gaza.
Meanwhile the Palestinian Health Ministry warned on Monday the “collapse” of the health system in the Strip, in light of the continued closure of border crossings by Israeli forces and the entry of aid and fuel supplies.
Since October 7, 2023, the IOF has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in catastrophic humanitarian and health conditions, due to the continuous bombing and the prevention of supplies of food, water, medicine, and electricity.
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, as it exposes the lives and property of civilians to extreme danger, which requires urgent intervention from the international community to stop the aggression and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.
