The World Health Organization (WHO) referred to “heartbreaking” testimonies collected yesterday by its team at a hospital in the Gaza Strip, where victims of the bombardment in the al-Maghazi refugee camp were treated.
“A WHO team heard heartbreaking accounts from medical staff and victims of the suffering caused by the explosions,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the UN health agency, said via X (formerly Twitter).
WHO today visited Al-Aqsa Hospital, where scores of injured people were taken overnight following strikes in central #Gazaincluding in the vicinity of the Maghazi refugee camp.
Palestinian health authorities reported that 70 people were killed, while Al-Aqsa Hospital staff… pic.twitter.com/B5503C82CT
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 25, 2023
“A child lost his entire family in the bombing of the camp. A hospital nurse suffered the same loss, her whole family was killed,” he added.
According to the Health Ministry of Hamas, at least 70 people were killed in the bombing last Sunday of the al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said it was “verifying the incident”.
AFP notes that it was unable to independently confirm the death toll.
Dozens of lifeless bodies in white body bags were lined up below al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Bala, in the central Gaza Strip, ahead of funerals.
The hospital reported admitting about a hundred wounded after the bombing, according to the WHO Director-General.
“The number of patients treated at the hospital far exceeds its capacity in terms of beds and staff,” he underlined. “Many will not make it out of the waiting rooms alive.”
“This latest raid on a community in the Gaza Strip shows why we need a ceasefire now,” he added.
Sean Casey, a member of the WHO mission, said he was present when doctors treated a 9-year-old boy with a very serious head injury.
His name was Ahmed.
“He was just given anesthesia, to relieve the pain before he died,” he described in a video shot at the hospital, visibly struggling to hold back tears.
“He was crossing the street in front of the shelter where his family was and the building next to it was bombed,” he explained. The child was “hit by shrapnel, debris, brain tissues were injured…”.
“No one could do anything for him. As in so many cases here, there are no capabilities to deal with complex neurological cases, complex injuries,” he continued.
“Surgeries work 24 hours a day. “Emergency departments are way, way, way overstretched,” this WHO official added.
“This situation is unacceptable,” Sean Casey fumed. “It has to stop”.
Source: RES-MPE
