It is “deeply worrying” that “14 of 36 hospitals and two specialized centers in Gaza are not functioning due to a lack of fuel or due to damage, attacks and security problems. And the hospitals that remain open are overwhelmed with 40% of patients more than the number they are designed for”. This is the scenario described via also repeated during a press conference. The “health needs” at the heart of the conflict between Israel and Hamas “are increasing. Our ability to meet them is collapsing,” the DG warns. “So far, the WHO has confirmed 237 attacks on health services, “including 218 in the occupied Palestinian territories and 19 in Israel. Attacks on healthcare constitute a violation of international humanitarian law,” he reiterates.
The WHO “calls for urgent and sustained large-scale access to humanitarian assistance. We continue to call for the active protection of civilians and health care, as well as a humanitarian ceasefire,” summarizes the director via social media. The situation on the ground, in Gaza, “is indescribable,” emphasized the head of the UN health agency in a press conference: “Hospitals full of wounded people lying in the corridors; overcrowded morgues; Doctors who perform surgical procedures without anesthesia; Thousands of people are trying.” Protection from bombings; Families crowded together in overcrowded schools, desperate for food and water; overcrowded toilets and the risk of epidemics spreading. And everywhere fear, death, destruction, loss.”