‘Most people have diseases’ in Gaza as 25 hospitals close
Twenty-five of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday, as doctors warned that the healthcare system is collapsing under the strain of the Israel-Hamas war and rapidly spreading diseases.
“In just 66 days the health system has gone from 36 functional hospitals to 11 partially functional hospitals – one in the north and 10 in the south,” said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We cannot afford to lose any.”
Several hospitals have come under attack in recent days, the UN reported, including a strike on the maternity department of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza that resulted in several casualties. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) did not respond to a request for comment.
Doctors in Gaza said that deprivation is becoming more dangerous than violence for the local population, due to shortages of food, water, and medicine.
“Most people have digestive-related diseases due to contaminated water or lack of water,” said Dr Tayser Hasan, a surgeon working at Yousef Najjar hospital in Rafah. “We even lack basic medications to treat these diseases.”
“We are seeing kidney-related diseases, and this is also water-related… The situation of women who recently delivered a baby is catastrophic as they cannot find milk for their newborns, and they are malnourished which makes breastfeeding hard,” the surgeon added.
Another doctor based at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis reported “many cases of malnourished children”.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki accused Israel of “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war”.
The UN General Assembly was set to vote on a resolution for a ceasefire on Tuesday evening similar to the UN Security Council resolution vetoed by the US on Friday. The largely symbolic vote is expected to pass with a large majority.
But the White House remains steadfastly behind Israel’s stated aim to “eradicate” Hamas, and Israeli officials have indicated that the war could continue for several months.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the US was “fully supportive of Israel’s ground operation” and would resist pressure to curtail the fighting.
Washington has backed Israel’s position that a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas, although it has also called on its ally to do more to limit harm to civilians.
But President Joe Biden warned at a fundraising event in Washington that Israel is “starting to lose” support from the international community over its heavy-handed tactics in Gaza.
Fellow Israel allies Australia, Canada, and New Zealand said in a sharply-worded statement “the price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.”
Israel said it had opened the Kerem Shalom aid crossing with Gaza to allow inspections for the first time since the start of the war, claiming this would double the volume of aid into the strip.
Aid groups have warned that the concentration of civilians into camps in the south of Gaza is creating unsanitary conditions for diseases to spread. More than 80 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been displaced, according to the UN, mostly to the south.
Israeli operations continued across Gaza on Tuesday. The IDF published footage from ground and air operations in the northern neighbourhoods of Jabalia and Shejaia that it claims are strongholds of Hamas.
Deadly air strikes were also reported in southern Gaza where Israel has instructed civilians to flee. Dozens of bodies arrived at southern hospitals early on Tuesday, local media reported.
Israel and Hamas both reported street battles in Khan Yunis, the largest city in southern Gaza. The militant group published videos purporting to show strikes on Israeli tanks with rockets and mortars.
Save the Children announced that staff member Sameh Ewaida, 39, was killed by an Israeli air strike with his four young children and several members of his extended family.
Inger Ashing, head of Save the Children, described their deaths as an “outrage”.
“This conflict has been the deadliest on record for the killing of UN and humanitarian staff,” she said. “It is a stain on our collective conscience that they were killed while trying to help others survive this brutal conflict.”
Another 207 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday, bringing the total to 18,412 since the start of the war on 7 October, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures are deemed reliable by the UN.
The IDF reported one soldier killed in action, bringing the death toll to 105 since Israel launched its ground invasion on 27 October. Israel said that 20 were killed by friendly fire.
