The strip’s second-largest hospital within the southern Khan Younis metropolis has many sufferers and different Palestinians sheltering.
Floor and air assaults by the Israeli forces have now rendered Gaza’s second-largest hospital nonoperational.
The besieged enclave’s Ministry of Well being and the World Well being Group (WHO) on Sunday mentioned the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis is now not functioning after a weeks-long siege that intensified this week, followed by deadly raids.
“There are solely 4 medical staffers presently caring for sufferers” contained in the hospital, ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra informed Reuters information company on Sunday.
In a put up on X, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus mentioned the organisation’s crew has not been permitted by the Israeli army to enter the hospital since Friday to evaluate the situation of important sufferers and medical wants, although they reached the hospital together with companions to ship gas.
“There are nonetheless about 200 sufferers within the hospital. At the very least 20 should be urgently referred to different hospitals to obtain well being care; medical referral is each affected person’s proper,” he mentioned, including that “the price of delays shall be paid by sufferers’ lives”.
Nasser hospital in #Gaza is just not purposeful anymore, after a weeklong siege adopted by the continued raid.
Each yesterday and the day earlier than, the @WHO crew was not permitted to enter the hospital to evaluate the situations of the sufferers and important medical wants, regardless of…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 18, 2024
Up to now few days, Israeli troopers had raided the hospital, the place displaced Palestinians had been additionally sheltering. The Well being Ministry on Saturday mentioned Israeli forces “arrested a lot of the administrators and workers” of the hospital whereas they had been tending to the wounded.
On Friday, the ministry mentioned an support convoy led by the United Nations was detained for seven hours and prevented from reaching the hospital.
In the meantime, al-Amal Hospital, the one different main medical facility nonetheless operational in Khan Younis, continues to be a target of Israeli attacks. The Palestine Crimson Crescent Society (PRCS) on Sunday mentioned Israeli forces focused the third ground of the hospital with artillery hearth.
The Israeli army has expanded its siege on Khan Younis and its medical amenities because it pushed additional south into Rafah on the border with Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained adamant about an imminent floor assault on Rafah, the place greater than 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have been sheltering, making a humanitarian disaster.
“Within the in a single day [air] assaults on Rafah, we’ve seen the horror of displaced Palestinians looking for shelters within the metropolis the place they had been ordered to evacuate and informed it could be a ‘secure zone’ solely to search out themselves focused and killed inside their houses,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah, mentioned on Sunday.
“On prime of that, there’s a lack of obtainable medical workers and a scarcity of medical provides, which accurately leaves individuals mendacity on the flooring of hospitals for hours, ready for assist. Israel has put restrictions on the supply of support worsening the scarcity.”
The UN, together with america and different Israel allies, have mentioned they would not accept an invasion of Rafah however haven’t mentioned what they might do if Israel proceeds with its “whole victory” strategy.
