The spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry said the occupancy rate of hospitals in the northern enclave has reached 190 percent as they are overflowing with injured people.
Hospitals in northern Gaza are now completely out of service, according to the besieged enclave’s health ministry.
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, said in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune on Tuesday that the occupancy rate of hospitals in northern Gaza has reached 190 percent.
Israel bombed and destroyed parts of al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, where more than 700 people are still held captive under Israeli army siege, according to al-Qudra.
Last week, Israeli forces seized the hospital to search what they say is a network of tunnels and a Hamas command center built beneath the compound. Hamas has denied the allegations.
A group of 28 premature babies were evacuated from al-Shifa hospital to Egypt for treatment on Monday, according to Palestinian authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Circle of Death”
Al-Qudra also reported that around 120 people were evacuated from the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza to the Nasser Medical Complex in the southern Gaza Strip.
There are still more than 400 injured inside the Indonesian hospital, in addition to around 200 medical staff and more than 2,000 other refugees, he added.
The Israeli army placed people inside the hospital in a “ring of death,” targeting anyone moving around or inside the hospital, al-Qudra said.
Gaza’s health ministry said Monday that at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in attacks on the Jakarta-funded hospital, currently surrounded by Israeli tanks.
The WHO said the same day that the Indonesian hospital was only able to provide basic services, with the lives of seriously injured people and other medical emergencies in immediate danger.
Al-Qudra also said that Israeli airstrikes targeted the house of the deputy undersecretary at the Gaza Ministry of Health on Tuesday morning, adding that there were 56 of his relatives in the house who had been displaced from different areas from Gaza.
Rescue teams managed to find 17 bodies while the others are still under the rubble, according to the spokesperson.
Disastrous conditions
Hospitals in northern Gaza and Gaza City faced power outages due to lack of fuel and Israeli attacks.
They also face severe shortages of water, medicine and essential supplies as Israel continues its ground operations and airstrikes on the enclave.
The WHO says it has recorded 335 attacks on health facilities in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7, the start of the Gaza war, including 164 attacks in the Gaza Strip and 171 attacks in the West Bank.
These attacks led to forced mass evacuations from hospitals and multiple deaths and injuries among patients, their companions and displaced people who found refuge there, according to the WHO.
At least 13,000 Palestinians – including around 5,600 children and 3,500 women – have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its air and ground attack on Gaza following Hamas attacks targeting Israel on October 7, according to the Ministry of Defense. Health of the enclave.
Hamas and allied groups took around 240 prisoners during their incursion into southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.