© Reuters. Palestinians examine damages following an Israeli raid at Kamal Adwan hospital, amid the continued battle between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, within the northern Gaza Strip December 16, 2023. REUTERS/Fadi Alwhidifa
By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
GENEVA (Reuters) -The World Well being Group mentioned on Thursday that northern Gaza has been left with out a useful hospital attributable to an absence of gasoline, employees and provides.
Solely 9 out of 36 well being services have been partially useful in the entire of Gaza, in line with the WHO. All these services are concentrated within the enclave’s south.
“There are actually no functional hospitals left in the north,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO consultant in Gaza, informed reporters by way of video hyperlink from Jerusalem.
“Al-Ahli (Hospital) was the last one but it is now minimally functional: still treating patients but not admitting new ones.”
Describing it as a “shell of a hospital”, Peeperkorn mentioned Al-Ahli resembled a hospice offering very restricted care. About 10 employees, all junior docs and nurses, proceed to supply primary first assist, ache administration and wound care with scant assets, he mentioned.
“Until two days ago, it was the only hospital where injured people could get surgery in northern Gaza and that was overwhelmed with patients needing emergency care,” he mentioned.
“There are no operating theatres anymore due to the lack of fuel, power, medical supplies and health workers, including surgeons and other specialists.”
The our bodies of victims from latest Israeli assaults have been lined up within the hospital’s courtyard as a result of they might not be given secure and dignified burials, he mentioned.
Along with Al-Ahli Hospital, northern Gaza had solely three different minimally functioning well being services: Al-Shifa, Al Awda and Al Sahaba hospitals, which Peeperkorn mentioned have been sheltering 1000’s of displaced folks.
Some sufferers at Al-Ahli had been ready for surgical procedures for weeks or if that they had been operated on, they confronted the danger of a post-operation an infection attributable to lack of antibiotics and different medicine, he added.
“All these patients cannot move and need to be transferred urgently to have a chance to survive,” he mentioned, reiterating the WHO’s name for a humanitarian ceasefire.
“This is needed now to reinforce and restock remaining health facilities, deliver medical services needed by thousands of injured people and those needing other essential care, and, above all, to stop the bloodshed and death.”