The WHO says a “total incursion” into Gaza City would leave only poorly equipped field hospitals and additional mortality.
A World Health Organization official said the last operating hospital in Rafah could cease functioning and a significant number of deaths could be expected if Israel launched a “full incursion” into the southern city of Rafah. Gaza.
“If the incursion continues, we would lose the last hospital in Rafah,” Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for Gaza and the occupied West Bank, said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
He said that in the event of a “total incursion”, an emergency plan involving treating patients in a series of poorly equipped field hospitals “will not prevent what we expect: increased mortality and substantial additional morbidity.
These comments come as Israeli tanks reportedly advanced into the center of Rafah.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said Israeli tanks are “pushing deeper into Rafah right now from two main axes.”
“First, along the Philadelphia corridor to downtown, and second, from the eastern part of Rafah city to an area known as al-Awda traffic circle,” he said. he explained.
Israel’s three-week offensive on Rafah sparked fresh outrage after an airstrike on Sunday sparked a fire in a tent camp in a western district, killing at least 45 people.
Israel said it targeted two senior Hamas officials at a compound and did not intend to cause civilian casualties.
On Tuesday, 21 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured in an Israeli attack on a tent area housing displaced people in al-Mawasi, west of Rafah, according to Palestinian medical officials.
Peeperkorn said that of Rafah’s three hospitals, only one was “barely functional.” He said the Abu Youssed Al-Najar Hospital, which previously accommodated 700 dialysis patients, was no longer functioning.
The artillery bombardments in Rafah reached the vicinity of Kuwait’s specialist hospital, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Mahmoud said on Tuesday, which was taken out of service. Three field hospitals in the west of the city of Rafah are also all out of service, he said.
Rafah was a major entry point for humanitarian aid before Israel stepped up its military offensive on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt earlier this month and took control of the crossing from the Palestinian side.
Peeperkorn said its closure had a direct impact on the WHO’s ability to deliver medical supplies to Gaza.
“Almost 100 percent of medical supplies, essential medicines and equipment actually come from El Arish (in Egypt) through the Rafah crossing,” he said. “There are currently 60 trucks in El Arish waiting to enter Gaza. »
Since the closure of Rafah, WHO has only been able to move three trucks of medical supplies through the Karem Abu Salem crossing, which Israelis call the Kerem Shalom crossing, Peeperkorn said.
Separately, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said that since Israel launched its Rafah offensive, “there has been an abrupt halt to all medical evacuations,” warning that more people would die. while waiting to receive treatment due to this shutdown.
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are estimated to be in need of urgent medical evacuation, but few have been able to leave the territory under siege since October 7.
