A World Health Organization official said on Tuesday that only 11 hospitals, less than a third of Gaza’s hospitals, are still partially operational, calling for their protection.
The representative of the World Health Organization in the Palestinian Territories, Richard Peppercorn, said at a United Nations conference via video link from Gaza: “In just 66 days, the health system went from 36 operating hospitals to 11 partially functioning hospitals, one in the north and 10 in the south.”
He continued: “We cannot afford to lose any health care facilities or hospitals. We hope and pray that this does not happen,” according to Reuters.
Winter is a new danger facing the residents of Gaza
Winter is coming hard and fast to the Gaza Strip as residents are forced to live in crowded areas, and while the health system “collapses,” a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent “sounds the alarm” about a humanitarian catastrophe that could leave “people dying in the streets.”
In previous statements to the Al-Hurra website, the spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, Dr. Abdul Jalil Hanjal, explained that, amid the cold weather, a large number of displaced people are crowded into “closed rooms,” which leads to an acceleration of the spread of respiratory diseases.
The former Dean of the Palestine College of Nursing, Dr. Nabil Al-Najjar, also confirmed that there are large numbers of displaced people suffering from “chest infections” due to the cold weather and the smell of gunpowder.
He continued: “A large number of displaced people suffer from viral congestions, due to overcrowding in shelter places and the lack of appropriate medical services.”
The war in Gaza displaced 1.9 million people, or 85 percent of the Strip’s population, amid reports from the World Health Organization of a “catastrophic” health situation.
“Rotting wounds attacked by worms.” Testimonies from Gaza hospitals
Al-Shifa Medical Complex and other hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip lived in tragic conditions during the current war, as doctors were forced to perform surgeries without anesthesia due to the depletion of local anesthetics and the lack of anesthesiologists or capabilities to perform operations that rely on general anesthesia.
With the advent of winter, the already “catastrophic situation” is worsening “rapidly,” as rainstorms and strong winds have swept the crowded coastal strip, increasing the suffering of a large segment of the population who have shelter, according to a newspaper report.Guardian” British.
The World Health Organization said on Sunday that it would be “almost impossible to improve the catastrophic health situation” in Gaza, even as the organization’s Executive Council approved an emergency proposal by consensus to bring in more medical supplies and kits.
The organization’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said, “I must be frank with you: these tasks are almost impossible in light of the current conditions.” However, he praised the countries for finding common ground, saying that it was the first time that a United Nations proposal had been agreed upon since the outbreak of the conflict.
He stressed, in statements before the organization’s 34-member Executive Council in Geneva, that medical needs in Gaza have increased and the risk of diseases has worsened, while the health system has shrunk to a third compared to what it was before the conflict.
The head of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, Mustafa Barghouthi, who has 25 teams working in Gaza, said that there are “350,000 people who have been infected with infections, including 115,000 who suffer from severe respiratory infections, and they do not have warm clothes, blankets, or means of protection.” From the rain.”
He added that many people complain of stomach problems due to the lack of clean water and not enough fuel to boil them, which threatens the spread of dysentery, which is bloody diarrhea, typhoid and cholera.
He continued: “What makes matters worse is that we have 46,000 wounded who cannot be treated properly, because most hospitals are not working.”
2023-12-12 10:49:22
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