The distress of the health system in the Gaza Strip has resonated at the highest levels of international authorities. Before the veto, put forward by the United States, on Friday December 8, of a Security Council resolution calling for a “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, warned about “the constant bombings of the Israeli armed forces”.
“In the absence of shelter or the minimum to survive, I expect a total breakdown of law and order soon, due to the desperate conditions, which would make even limited humanitarian assistance impossible” in the Gaza Strip, he wrote in a letter to the Security Council. The director of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that “ UNRWA’s ability to continue its action in the Gaza Strip has become very limited”.
“More than 130 colleagues were killed, most of them with their families. At least 70% of staff have been displaced. Those still working are working to continue providing food aid and medical care. They take their children to work so that they are safe or so that if they die, they die together, he writes. In thirty-five years of working in extremely complex emergencies, I have never written such a letter, predicting the murder of my staff and the collapse of the mandate I was supposed to honour. »
A few hours earlier, doctor Mohamed Salha wrote a series of messages from one of the rooms of Al-Awda hospital, in the north of the Palestinian territory. Then he went to put his iPhone on the roof, to find some network via the Spanish virtual SIM card given to him by friends – local telecommunications in the enclave are frequently out of service. ” It’s very dangerous, he reported, Friday morning. We have been under siege for four days: no one can enter or leave the hospital. Yesterday, a sniper killed one of our colleagues, a nurse, while he was standing at the window. A few days ago, another killed a woman who accompanied a relative who came to give birth at the hospital. His body is still in the street, we cannot bring him back. »
Infants not evacuated
According to the doctor, more than 250 people – health staff, around 40 patients and their families – are gathered in one of the four buildings, with barely enough water to last two or three days. “I can’t describe to you what it feels like. We don’t have control over anythinghe adds. They have attacked Al-Awda Hospital six times, in addition to other attacks near our buildings since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7. » In the afternoon, heavy explosions interrupted another voice message from the doctor.
You have 65% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.