UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 : A large-scale Israeli attack on Rafah would create \u201ca human disaster beyond imagination,\u201d World Health Organization (WHO) doctors in Gaza have warned. Dr Rik Peeperkorn, a WHO representative based in Rafah, said that the three remaining hospitals in southern Gaza were urgently preparing for a possible assault, but warned contingency plans were nowhere near sufficient.<\/p>\n
Military activity in such a densely populated area would cause an \u201cunfathomable catastrophe, a human disaster beyond imagination,\u201d he said. It would wreak \u201chavoc\u201d against civilians. Intense fighting and airstrikes around Rafah in recent days have heightened concern that a full-fledged military incursion is imminent in an area where more than 1.4 million Gazans are sheltering. Earlier, the UN\u2019s top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, had said that an assault on Rafah \u201ccould lead to a slaughter\u201d, firmly rejecting allegations of years-long collusion with non-health partners either in or underneath Gaza\u2019s hospitals. \u201cWe definitely cannot be louder in saying that no, there is no collusion between WHO and any other entities in the health sector, in the health partners, in the (local) Ministry of Health who we are collaborating with,\u201d said Dr Teresa Zakaria, WHO incident manager for the conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). \u201cWe are not in a position, however, to investigate any other activities taking place in hospitals or what is happening underneath hospitals. I\u2019m sure you can also appreciate that in hospitals, where there are lots of patients, and lots of displaced populations, when we focus on delivering services that is really what we are doing, we are not in a position to look beyond that service provision that we need to fulfil,\u201d she added. Speaking from Gaza, Dr Peeperkorn also insisted that hospitals \u201cshould never be militarized\u201d and that \u201call eyes\u201d are on the hostilities and the feared large-scale offensive in Rafah. \u201cYou see the fear people face,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople constantly come with questions (asking) \u2018What can we do?\u2019\u201d The development comes as hospital facilities are \u201ccompletely overburdened and under capacitated\u2026and close to the brink of collapse\u201d, Dr Peeperkorn continued, noting that 1.5 million Gazans are now crammed into makeshift tents and UNRWA shelters \u201call over the place\u201d in Rafah. The WHO medic described the few remaining partially functioning hospitals in Rafah as \u201ccompletely overwhelmed, overflowing and under-supplied\u201d, noting that since November, only 30 per cent of WHO missions to the north were facilitated by the Israeli authorities. \u201cSince January, the figure is much lower,\u201d Dr Peeperkorn said, adding that only approximately 45 per cent of mission requests for the south had been facilitated. \u201cThat\u2019s absurd, even when there is no ceasefire; humanitarian corridors should exist so that WHO, the UN and partners can do their job,\u201d he emphasised. \u201cWe need a complete deconfliction system to be able to do our work. The UN, WHO, is ready to carry out more and more missions, to the north, to the centre, to the south.\u201d After more than four months of intense Israeli bombardment, health authorities in Gaza reported that more than 28,000 people \u2013 mostly women and children \u2013 have been killed. Humanitarian workers have been doing the \u201cnear-impossible to assist people in need, despite the risks\u201d, Griffiths, the UN\u2019s emergency relief chief, said in a statement on Tuesday. Warning that humanitarian workers continued to be in danger in the absence of safety guarantees and continued strikes in Rafah, the veteran aid official also urged Israel to heed repeated calls from the international community to step back from a ground invasion and its \u201cdangerous consequences\u201d. Nowhere is safe in Gaza and people uprooted by the violence \u2013 which includes rocket fire from northern Gaza towards Israel \u2013 still have nowhere to go, Mr Griffiths said, as he highlighted a further deterioration of living conditions, marked by \u201cacute shortages of safe areas, shelters, clean water, food and medicine\u201d. In a rare piece of good news, the top UN aid coordinator noted that a short pause in heavy fighting in Khan Younis \u2013 particularly near Nasser and Al Amal hospitals \u2013 allowed volunteers on Monday \u201cto exit Nasser hospital and reroute sewage from a broken pipeline that was flooding the emergency room and threatening to shut it down.\u201d He said this was made possible after the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office, OCHA, coordinated a local, three-hour pause, which was agreed by the Israeli military, while a permanent fix of the pipeline is still pending. Citing the latest data on damage to schools in Gaza, the UN relief chief said that 162 school buildings have been directly hit since 7 October.This represents nearly 30 per cent of the total 563 school buildings in the enclave, according to the joint UN Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF)\/Save The Children report. \u201cAt least 26 of these buildings have been destroyed. Some 175,000 students and more than 6,500 teachers have had their schools directly hit in hostilities. At least 55 per cent of schools in Gaza will require either full reconstruction or major rehabilitation,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 : A large-scale Israeli attack on Rafah would create \u201ca human disaster beyond imagination,\u201d World Health Organization (WHO) doctors in Gaza have warned. Dr Rik Peeperkorn, a WHO representative based in Rafah, said that the three remaining hospitals in southern Gaza were urgently preparing for a possible assault, but warned contingency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-387280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n