Bishoy Ramzi Thursday, November 2, 2023 10:03 PM
The Council of Arab Health Ministers stressed the need to immediately stop the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, warning of the catastrophic humanitarian and health repercussions with the continuation of this genocide, the repeated Israeli war crimes and its threats to evacuate hospitals in northern Gaza, where there are thousands of patients, and the forced evacuation of patients and health workers.
This came in a statement by the Council of Arab Health Ministers following its extraordinary session today, Thursday, via video conference technology, headed by the Algerian Minister of Health, Abdelhak Sayhi, Chairman of the current session of the Council, at the invitation of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States (Social Affairs Sector – Technical Secretariat of the Council). Arab Ministers of Health), to discuss health issues scheduled to be submitted to the upcoming Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
The Council warned that there are patients in intensive care units in the Gaza Strip, including those who depend on devices to survive, patients undergoing dialysis, newborns in incubators, women who suffer from pregnancy complications, and others, which constitute a clear and blatant violation of the provisions of international law and international humanitarian law. And the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians of 1949.
The Council of Arab Health Ministers condemned in the strongest terms the ongoing war crimes and brutal massacres in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of more than 8,720 martyrs and more than 22,000 wounded, the majority of whom were children, women and the elderly (73%), and the destruction of more than 177,781 thousand housing units, in addition to hundreds of missing persons. .
The Council warned that the continuation of these attacks targeting Palestinians in the vicinity of treatment centers and hospitals, as well as medical teams and shelters where they seek refuge to escape the continuing Israeli bombing, without any regard for the lives lost, will exacerbate the deterioration of the health and humanitarian conditions.
The Council denounced the continued Israeli aggression targeting civilian residential buildings, destroying basic infrastructure, and imposing restrictions on the basic components and resources of life, such as water, and the introduction of medicines, electricity, and fuel, which leads to catastrophic loss of life among civilians.
The Council called on the international community to assume its responsibilities to stop these brutal massacres and open safe and sustainable humanitarian corridors to ensure the access and flow of humanitarian and relief aid, to alleviate the burden of the humanitarian catastrophe suffered by the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, in implementation and respect for the rules of international humanitarian law.
The Council also called on the international community to stop double standards and put pressure on the occupying powers to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, protect civilians, health teams, health facilities, shelter centers and places of worship, and immediately and urgently allow the entry of fuel to hospitals, health centers and ambulances.
The Council praised the heroic steadfastness provided by the medical teams in the Gaza Strip in light of the brutal Israeli aggression and the great challenges they face, stressing support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land and warning against any attempts to displace them outside it.
The Council decided to expand the circle of communication with international and regional organizations to mobilize support and support for the Palestinian people.
The Council assigned the President of the current session (the Republic of Algeria) and the Head of the Executive Office (the Arab Republic of Egypt) to address the Director-General of the World Health Organization to intensify his efforts to provide all forms of medical and humanitarian support to the Ministry of Health in the State of Palestine and to work to protect hospitals and health facilities in the Gaza Strip.
The Council also assigned the Technical Secretariat to follow up on urgent needs with the Ministry of Health of the State of Palestine and to inform Arab health ministries of them on a permanent basis, and to work on the immediate and safe delivery of medical supplies, fuel, clean water, food and other humanitarian aid to Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
The Council assigned the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States to request the World Health Organization for the Eastern Mediterranean to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the health and humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, on the sidelines of the Executive Council of the World Health Organization in Geneva in January 2024.
The participants in the Council meeting listened to the interventions of the Palestinian Minister of Health, Dr. Mai Al-Kaila, and the Arab Ministers of Health regarding the serious health repercussions in the Gaza Strip and all Palestinian territories, and consultation and coordination on ways to open safe and sustainable corridors for the passage of health aid.
Urgent humanitarian relief to the Palestinian people.
They also reviewed the report of the Palestinian Ministry of Health dated February 1, which stated that the Israeli occupation bombed the areas adjacent to Al-Shifa and Al-Quds Hospitals in Gaza City, the Indonesian Hospital, and the only Turkish Friendship Hospital designated for cancer diseases in the Gaza Strip, following calls by the Israeli occupation army to evacuate these facilities immediately, and also the bombing of a hospital. Baptist, and the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank carried out an attack on 118 health care facilities and damaged 50 ambulances, including 28 that were completely out of service, as well as carrying out 67 attacks to obstruct the provision of health care and 61 cases related to physical violence against health teams. 19 cases related to the detention of health personnel and ambulances, and 12 cases involved military inspection of health personnel.
The report indicated the death of 132 health personnel and more than 110 wounded. The discharge of 16 hospitals out of 35 in the Gaza Strip, 51 health care centers out of 72, an appeal from the Palestinian Ministry of Health to donate blood, and an appeal to the International Committee and the World Health Organization to provide blood units from outside the Gaza Strip and from the West Bank.
And from Egypt.
The report pointed out the closure of cities and checkpoints by Israel (the occupying power), the lack of security, the restrictions imposed on movement, and the attacks on the health sector in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which made the movement of ambulances difficult in addition to obstructing the movement of health care workers and obstructing patients’ access to primary care and hospitals between Cities of the West Bank and Jerusalem.
2023-11-02 20:03:00
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