The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that tens of thousands of displaced people in hospitals in the Gaza Strip face the risk of “famine,” which has reached “horrible states.”
He added on X that on December 23, he visited 4 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa Hospital, accompanied by other UN officials.
Ghebreyesus stressed that there is a great need in the besieged hospitals in the Gaza Strip for medical equipment, food, drinking water, and beds for patients.
The UN official warned of the consequences of “acute hunger” that Gaza is currently witnessing, calling on the World Health Organization and its partners to increase their assistance in terms of drinking water and food.
He explained that Al-Shifa Hospital, “which was once one of the largest hospitals in Gaza,” now provides only first aid, noting that Al-Shifa Hospital hosts approximately 50,000 displaced Palestinians who face the risk of hunger.
Ghebreyesus called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which is suffering from a collapse in the health system due to the intense Israeli attacks.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said that 180 displaced Palestinian women in shelter centres give birth every day in “unsafe” conditions, while about 900,000 displaced children suffer from the risk of “drought, famine, and diseases.”
The statement was delivered by the Ministry’s spokesman, Ashraf Al-Qudra, during a press conference held at the Emirates Crescent Hospital in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
Al-Qudra added, “50,000 pregnant women are in shelter centres without food or health care, and about 180 others give birth every day in unsafe and inhumane conditions.”
“About 900,000 children in shelter centres suffer from the risk of dehydration, famine, digestive and respiratory diseases, skin diseases, and anaemia.”
He added that “70 per cent of kidney failure patients are exposed to catastrophic health risks as a result of bombing, displacement, and difficulty in accessing dialysis services, especially in northern Gaza.”
Al-Qudra reported that the occupation authorities “deliberately destroyed hospitals in northern Gaza, leaving 800,000 people there without health services.”
He warned that “the wounded, the sick, pregnant women and infants in the northern Gaza areas are facing certain death.”
Al-Qudra called on “all international institutions to work immediately to urgently operate the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and the hospitals in northern Gaza in order to save the lives of the wounded and sick.”
On Thursday, December 21, 2023, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that hundreds of wounded people were dying as a result of the lack of health services in the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, except for a limited return to the work of the dialysis department in the complex since last November 27.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which has left 20,674 dead, and 54,536 wounded, most of whom are children and women. It also caused massive destruction of the infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
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 and suffering, which requires urgent intervention by the international community to stop the aggression and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.
