Gaza’s health ministry is struggling to update casualty figures as Israeli forces increasingly target allied hospitals and services in the besieged enclave.
The United Nations has confirmed that the “collapse of services and communications” in hospitals in northern Gaza is seriously hampering health officials.
So when was the last time we received an update, how has the ministry managed its numbers so far and what is the dire situation of hospitals in Gaza?
When was the last update?
On Sunday, the government media office in Gaza updated the casualty figures after a two-day interval. This brought the death toll to 11,100, including more than 8,000 children and women. The last official update was on November 10 at 2 p.m. (12:00 GMT).
“Due to the targeting of hospitals and the ban on the entry of bodies or injured people, the Ministry of Health was unable, on Saturday, to publish precise statistics on the number of dead and injured during the last few hours,” the press office said. said in a statement.
Gaza’s health ministry has been providing daily updates since the start of the war, following Hamas’ surprise attack in Israel, which killed around 1,200 people.
Last week, Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, told a House panel that the number of people killed in Gaza – home to 2.3 million people – is likely ” higher than what is claimed.
The UN humanitarian agency confirmed in its latest update on Saturday that a communications outage had prevented new figures from arriving.
Nearly 3,000 Palestinians are still missing and may be trapped or dead under the rubble while another 27,490 Palestinians are believed to have been injured, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
How does the system work?
The Health Ministry previously explained its methodology for compiling data on Palestinian casualties.
Once a victim arriving at the emergency department of a government hospital is identified, their data, including their identification number and personal information, as well as the time of arrival, are recorded in the emergency system. computerized hospital information.
Each hospital also records cases of death of injured people who had spent some time in the hospital before their death.
Daily information on Palestinians killed is transferred from the decentralized hospital system to the central database of a government registry.
Non-governmental hospitals use their own forms to record data about the victim upon arrival. Then, these forms are sent to the Health Information Center of the Ministry of Health within 24 hours for entry into the central database.
The ministry processes the data, checks its completeness and ensures that there are no duplicates or errors once the transfer is complete.
The ministry’s information center prepares daily reports, which are sent to the government-run Health Emergency Operations Center for approval and dissemination.
To what extent are hospitals in Gaza suffering?
Israeli air raids have hit areas in and around hospitals and medical centers across Gaza with devastating effect since the start of the war, based on a claim disputed by Palestinians as well as international medical NGOs. which Hamas operates in these areas. Israel has not provided any evidence for its claims.
But as Israel’s ground offensive advances in northern Gaza, its forces are also increasingly focusing on hospitals, and recent days have marked a sharp increase in their targets.
Israeli tanks have now surrounded al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest facility, and snipers and drones positioned all around are shooting at people.
A hospital surgeon told Al Jazeera on Sunday that an engineer who was trying to repair a power outage at the hospital was shot and left paralyzed by a drone. He said he saw a family shot and injured as they tried to leave through an exit that the Israeli military had said civilians could use.
“We can barely treat patients in the hospital and we are in the middle of the war zone. Airstrikes are continuous and drones are flying over the hospital area,” said Dr. Ahmad Mokhallalati.
The facility’s director, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that two premature babies died following a power outage at the neonatal intensive care unit, and another 37 babies face imminent death.
Deeply disturbing and frightening: @WHO lost contact with its focal points at Al-Shifa Hospital in #Gazaamid horrific reports that the hospital is facing repeated attacks.
According to reports, some of those who fled the hospital were shot, injured or killed.
THE…
– Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 12, 2023
On Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Al-Quds Hospital was no longer operational due to a lack of fuel and a power outage.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday morning it had lost communication with its contacts at the hospital and confirmed it had received reports of people killed while trying to flee.
Is a place safe?
For weeks, the United Nations and international rights groups have warned that Palestinians in Gaza, especially the most vulnerable, have no safe place to turn.
@PalestineRCS announces Al-Quds Hospital out of service and no longer operational.
🚨✋Discontinuation of services is due to exhaustion of available fuel and power outage.
🛑 The PRCS holds the international community and the signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention responsible… pic.twitter.com/SPg69Zv7GH
– PRCS (@PalestineRCS) November 12, 2023
UN shelters have not been spared either, and the organization said on Friday that 66 internally displaced people had been killed and 588 injured while staying in UN shelters.
“Hundreds of thousands of people remaining in the north are struggling to obtain the essentials for their survival. Consumption of water from unsafe sources raises serious concerns about dehydration and water-borne diseases,” the UN said.
He noted that hospitals are explicitly entitled to specific protection under international humanitarian law.