Local and international officials warned of the consequences of the scarcity of medical aid that threatens the lives of thousands of patients in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the deliberate targeting by the Israeli occupation army of medical staff and hospitals.
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that 1 in 4 people injured in the Gaza war need rehabilitation services, including care after amputations and spinal cord injuries, according to the World Health Organization.
He added that the highest percentage of amputee children in the world are in Gaza, and that many of them underwent surgeries without anesthesia.
He declared what he called a “pandemic of disabilities” in Gaza due to the “epidemic of terrible injuries” caused by the Israeli war of extermination among Palestinians with the absence of rehabilitation services.
For his part, Director of Field Hospitals at the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Marwan Al-Hams, said that acute malnutrition and dehydration threaten the lives of thousands of patients hospitalized in Gaza, especially children and the elderly.
Al-Hams explained that hospitals have become unable to provide assistance in light of the severe shortage of medical supplies and humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.
Scarcity of resources
In this context, the medical director of Doctors Without Borders told Tel Aviv Tribune that the biggest challenges are the scarcity of medical resources and the difficulty of bringing them into the Gaza Strip.
The medical director added that the health and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is tragic and disastrous.
For his part, Civil Defense spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Basal, said that the occupation is committing atrocities in the northern Gaza Strip and continues to target medical personnel and civil defense teams.
He added in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune that the occupation has been preventing the entry of basic materials into the northern Gaza Strip for more than 60 days.
In the same context, UNRWA confirmed its continued suspension of the receipt and delivery of aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main corridor for humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
She renewed the call to facilitate the receipt and delivery of aid through it, stressing that famine is looming on the horizon.
Today, the Palestinian Civil Defense Service announced that a crew affiliated with it survived an Israeli bombing that directly targeted it while it was trying to rescue injured people in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
In a previous statement, the Civil Defense said that the Israeli army targeted its crews while they were carrying out humanitarian missions about 18 times since October 7, 2023.
He reported that the army had killed 88 members of its crews, wounded 304 others, and arrested 21 since October 7, according to the same statement.
