UNITED NATIONS, Jan 08 : Majority of the Gaza\u2019s 36 hospitals have been put out of action due to relentless Israeli bombardments of the besieged enclave, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday. Remaining medical facilities face dire shortages, the Geneva-based UN agency noted.<\/p>\n
At al-Aqsa Hospital, the last functioning hospital in central Gaza, a WHO team on Sunday witnessed what it said were \u201csickening scenes,\u201d with patients being treated on blood-streaked floors, according to a social media post from WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. \u201cThey\u2019re treating children on the floor. \u2026 The floor is actually covered in blood. There are patients coming in every few minutes,\u201d Sean Casey, the WHO emergency medical teams coordinator in Gaza, said in a video from the hospital. He added that due to evacuation orders and the dangerous situation, there were only five doctors left to oversee hundreds of emergency cases and casualties. \u201cIt is really a chaotic scene.\u201d A UN team on Friday delivered medical supplies to Gaza authorities in Khan Younis, and WHO coordinator Casey said it was \u201cthe first time we\u2019ve been able to make this delivery in about 10 days.\u201d \u201cHospitals have been running short on some supplies,\u201d he said, adding that medical facilities were \u201cworking at two or three times their normal capacity.\u201d Echoing those concerns, Tedros, the WHO chief, in a post on X reported \u201cimmense needs\u201d at the hospital,\u201cespecially health workers, medical supplies and beds. But staff said their greatest need was for their hospital, and its staff, patients and families there, to be protected from strikes and hostilities.\u201d More than 600 patients \u201cand most health workers\u201d had reportedly been forced to leave the facility, Tedros said, adding that it was \u201cinconceivable\u201d that the protection of health care could not be counted on. According to the UN health agency, no hospitals are \u201cfully functioning\u201d in northern Gaza. Another WHO mission had to be cancelled to the north on Sunday, Tedros said, \u201cdue to dangers and lack of necessary permissions\u201d. Elsewhere in Gaza, \u201ca mere handful of health facilities operate\u201d, the WHO chief said. In recent days casualty numbers have \u201cincreased markedly\u201d, Tedros continued, with \u201cover 120 trauma cases and dozens of dead arriving per day due to increased shelling, gunshot wounds, crush injuries from collapsed buildings, and other war-related trauma\u201d. WHO is also involved in plans to deploy an emergency medical team to support medical teams at Al-Aqsa. \u201cThis will only be possible in a secure environment,\u201d the UN health agency\u2019s Director-General noted. In a separate update on the emergency confirming \u201cintense\u201d Israeli strikes \u201cacross (central) Deir Al Balah governorate and the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah\u201d, OCHA reported on Sunday evening that Israeli forces \u201cstruck targets in Gaza city, Jabaliya Camp, Tal Az Za\u2019atar, and Beit Lahiya\u201d causing \u201ca very large number of fatalities\u201d in the Al Fallouja area of Jabaliya Camp. Rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian armed groups also continued, the UN aid office said, amid \u201cground operations and fighting\u2026across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in additional fatalities\u201d. Latest data from the Gazan health ministry cited by the UN aid wing indicated at least 22,835 fatalities since Israeli military strikes began after October 7. OCHA also noted reports of 225 Palestinian fatalities between Friday and Sunday and almost 300 injured, with 174 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza and more than 1,000 injured since ground operations began, according to the Israeli Defence Forces. Amid ongoing deadly violence, UN Children\u2019s Fund UNICEF estimated that there are now approximately 3,200 new cases of diarrhoea per day among under-fives. Before the escalation in hostilities, the average was 2,000 per month. There is also dire concern for nine in 10 children under two years old who are now in \u201csevere food poverty\u201d and \u201conly getting grains (including bread) or milk\u201d to eat. \u201cTime is running out. Many children already face severe acute malnutrition in Gaza,\u201d said UNICEF\u2019s Executive-Director Catherine Russell. \u201cAs the threat of famine intensifies, hundreds of thousands more young children could soon be severely malnourished, with some at risk of death. We cannot allow that to happen.\u201d Updated information from OCHA on the number of aid trucks entering Gaza indicated that on 6 and 7 January, a total of 218 trucks carried food, medicine and other supplies through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings. Before the conflict erupted, more than 500 trucks carried aid into the Strip every day, some 60 per cent passing through Kerem Shalom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 08 : Majority of the Gaza\u2019s 36 hospitals have been put out of action due to relentless Israeli bombardments of the besieged enclave, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday. Remaining medical facilities face dire shortages, the Geneva-based UN agency noted. At al-Aqsa Hospital, the last functioning hospital in central Gaza, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-379679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n