10/20/2023-|Last update: 10/20/202310:40 PM (Mecca time)
After October 17, the Baptist Hospital turned into an icon of the medical sector in the Gaza Strip, after the occupation turned it into the largest massacre in terms of the number of victims since the start of the current aggression, and 471 individuals were martyred in one fell swoop.
Baptist is considered the oldest hospital in the Gaza Strip, and even one of the oldest in Palestine, with a history of more than 140 years. What do we know about the reality of hospitals in the Gaza Strip?
A sector struggling with collapse
The number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip is 34, with the Ministry of Health directly managing 13 hospitals in the Strip with a bed capacity of 2,011 beds, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) provides health services to more than 70% of the Strip’s population.
Some health institutions are under the management of government agencies, such as military medical services, or health organizations such as the Red Crescent, Medical Relief, and others. The sector also includes a number of clinics and dispensaries affiliated with the Ministry of Health, and charitable societies that contribute to providing primary medical services within residential neighborhoods.
Central hospitals are distributed throughout the five governorates of the Strip, and the largest number of them are in Gaza Governorate, which is considered the administrative capital of the Strip, while Rafah Governorate – the largest in area in the Strip – is devoid of any central hospital, and the medical services provided there are limited to the Kuwaiti Hospital. As for… The remaining three governorates include a number of hospitals.
Here we mention the most prominent central hospitals in the five governorates:
North Governorate:
Indonesian Hospital (government) Kamal Adwan Hospital (government) Al Awda Hospital (private)
Gaza Governorate:
Al-Shifa Medical Complex (the largest in the sector). Al-Nasr Hospital, the National Arab Hospital “Al-Baptist”. Palestinian-Turkish Friendship Hospital. Jordanian field hospital. Martyr Muhammad Al-Durra Hospital.
Central Governorate:
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Khan Yunis Governorate:
Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, European Hospital, Nasser Medical Complex.
Rafah Governorate:
Kuwaiti Hospital.
On the line of fire
The medical sector in the Gaza Strip has been on the line of fire throughout the years of the ongoing siege for more than 17 years, which has had a harsh impact on the technical capabilities of hospitals that suffered from a lack of funding, and successive crises of fuel cuts and the lack of spare parts.
The occupation prevented the entry of many medical tools and equipment into the Gaza Strip, and reduced medical referrals for treatment from abroad, which put direct pressure on the capacity and treatment capabilities of hospitals and their medical teams.
In addition to all of the above, there is the intense pressure that these hospitals are experiencing during the rounds of Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip since 2008, as they receive hundreds of martyrs and thousands of wounded every day, which brings them to the brink of collapse due to the pressure that exceeds the capacity and clinical capacity of these hospitals many times over.
Returning to the ongoing occupation aggression until the date of writing these lines, the occupancy rate in hospitals in the Gaza Strip has reached more than 150% of their capacity.
Hospital courtyards and department corridors, especially the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, were filled with tents designated to receive and treat the wounded, in addition to mortuaries being filled with the bodies of martyrs, which prompted the Ministry of Health, in coordination with the Gaza Municipality, to open mass graves in empty squares in the city to relieve the enormous pressure on hospitals. The bodies of martyrs accumulated in its sides.
Doctors on target lists
With the escalation of the Israeli aggression against Gaza since October 7, the occupation not only struck the foundations of the steadfastness of the medical sector in Gaza by preventing the entry of emergency aid or medical teams, but rather escalated its attacks by directly targeting doctors and medical teams.
He carried out several direct assassinations targeting health sector workers in an unprecedented manner compared to all previous rounds of aggression, relying on open Western support for him in the aggression against the sector.
As of October 19, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip documented the martyrdom of 44 health sector teams and the injury of 70 others, the most prominent of which was the direct assassinations that targeted 3 doctors and their families within 24 hours, and they are:
Doctor Omar Farwana, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Islamic University, and all 14 members of his family in Gaza. Doctor Salah Zanoun and all 7 members of his family in Rafah. Doctor Medhat Saidam and all 7 members of his family in Nuseirat, who was assassinated by occupation aircraft immediately upon his arrival home from the hospital on a quick visit to inspect his family for the first time since the start of the aggression.
The occupation aircraft also targeted the homes of a number of doctors working in the Gaza Strip’s hospitals, who received their children and family members as martyrs, including:
Doctor Hamid Abu Musa in Khan Yunis. Doctor Abdullah Abu Nada, whose entire family was martyred after the bombing of the house while he was at the Shifa Medical Complex performing his duty in helping the wounded.
Medical goals bank
The occupation focused its raids in the first days of the aggression on directly targeting 23 ambulances with aerial bombardment, causing them to be completely out of service, which had a negative impact on paralyzing the capabilities of providing ambulance services to the wounded in the ongoing raids on the Gaza Strip, in addition to the death of 10 paramedics and the injury of others, according to Statistics of the Ministry of Health until the seventh day of the aggression.
In turn, the hospitals were not spared from the occupation’s plans to displace the northern Gaza Strip, and they received direct threats demanding that they evacuate in preparation for the aerial bombardment, as the Israeli army directed threats to 22 hospitals and medical centers, including 5 central hospitals in the Strip, which are:
Kuwaiti Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, Al-Awda Hospital, Public Service Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital
This is a step that the World Health Organization described as a “death sentence for the sick and wounded,” noting that “the forced evacuation of patients and health sector workers will exacerbate the current humanitarian and health catastrophe.”
Israeli warplanes also launched direct raids on 19 health institutions, including 4 central hospitals:
The Arab National Hospital “Al-Baptist” Beit Hanoun Hospital Martyr Muhammad Al-Durrah Hospital The vicinity of the Jordanian Field Hospital
The occupation raids that targeted health facilities resulted in these four hospitals being completely out of service.
Work also stopped in 14 health centers affiliated with the Primary Care Department of the Ministry of Health in the Gaza and North Gaza regions as a result of the power outage and the depletion of fuel reserves.
The Israeli war on the health sector in Gaza was not limited to bombing hospitals and targeting human teams, but rather extended to the stifling siege imposed on the Strip and preventing the entry of medical supplies, which prompted the Ministry of Health in Gaza to issue a warning that the stock of medicines, medical consumables and fuel would run out, and this would lead to the loss of… More wounded and sick people flooded the walls and corridors of the hospitals.
Rabat in hospitals
The health sector in Gaza is suffering from round-the-clock exhaustion, and constant exhaustion of the limited number of doctors, nurses, laboratory workers, and ambulance drivers, who work around the clock to receive endless waves of martyrs and wounded with varying injuries.
The toll of the aggression on the 13th day reached nearly 4,000 martyrs and more than 12,000 wounded, which prompted the Ministry of Health to summon all retired health sector employees, and asked them to immediately join work in health centers.
Despite these tragic conditions, the battle in the health sector witnessed a clear rivalry with the occupation, represented by the announcement of the health teams in all hospitals and medical centers threatened by bombing by the occupation aircraft about Rabat in the hospitals, along with the sick and wounded, and the absolute refusal to evacuate these hospitals.
The director of the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah said, “We will not leave our people alone, and we will not leave the hospital except for heaven,” despite the occupation’s continued threats and the repeated attacks that targeted a number of hospitals, in a scene that constituted a practical culmination of the continuous sacrifices made by this sector.
2023-10-20 19:28:04
#Targeting #Rabat. #reality #hospitals #medical #sector #Gaza #News
