The United Nations continues to issue warning statements about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza as the Israeli occupation continues its extermination war on the Gaza Strip for the 83rd day in a row.
“A public health disaster is in the making in Gaza,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths.
“Hospitals are barely functioning. Infectious diseases are rife and spreading fast in overcrowded shelters. Hundreds of people with war injuries are unable to receive care. Gaza is a public health disaster in the making,” Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said on X.
The spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Khalil Al-Daqran, said, “The situation inside the hospital is very catastrophic.”
“The number of infected people inside the hospital is large, and the number of beds is five times greater,” pointing out that “the hospital lacks medical supplies, medicines, and fuel,” he added.
Al-Daqran pointed out that “the majority of the injuries arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital are children, women and the elderly.”
“In the emergency department, we receive casualties from ambulances on wooden boards, and the injured are treated on the ground due to the lack of beds in the emergency department,” Al-Dakran continued.
A stretcher made of aluminium and rubber backed with a sponge is usually used to transport the wounded to prevent any deterioration in the health condition of the injured person as a result of carrying or transporting him in the wrong way. However, the numbers of these stretchers are small and not sufficient for the large numbers of wounded that arrive at hospitals every hour as a result of the Israeli bombing on the Gaza Stripe.
Al-Dakran said, “There is overcrowding inside the hospital, and a severe shortage of medical supplies, especially in the operating departments, which causes a delay in operations, especially related to the upper and lower extremities.”
He added that most of the injuries arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital are serious injuries to the head, chest, abdomen, and extremities, in addition to some multiple injuries to the injured person’s body, which requires the presence of 4 or 5 surgeons to treat the injured person.
Al-Dakran appealed to the countries of the world and the Arab and Islamic countries to intervene urgently and send medical and food aid, medicines and fuel to the Gaza Strip and its hospitals, and to send medical teams and delegations to support the staff of the Strip’s hospitals, calling for the Rafah crossing to be completely opened for the wounded to transfer all serious cases to receive treatment abroad.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and injuries, and left catastrophic humanitarian and health conditions, as a result of 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 and suffering, which requires urgent intervention by the international community to stop the aggression and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.
