World Health Organization
WHO: Injured people in Gaza are “starving and dying of thirst”
An ambulance drives past the rubble of destroyed buildings in Beit Lahia. photo
© Mohammed Alaswad/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
In Gaza, only 9 health facilities are still partially operational, according to the WHO. The situation is catastrophic. Everything is missing.
In the northern Gaza Strip, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer have functioning hospitals. Patients are not dying just because of a lack of medical care, WHO relief coordinator Sean Casey said on Thursday. “They are starving and dying of thirst,” he reported in a video link from Rafah.
According to WHO representative Richard Peeperkorn, only 9 of the 36 health facilities in the entire Gaza Strip are still partially operational. Hospitals in the northern part of the Palestinian coastal strip are no longer able to carry out operations and care for their patients, but they still accommodate thousands of people – including many refugees.
Casey and a team visited two of these hospitals in the northern city of Gaza the previous day. Some patients with war injuries are already waiting days or even weeks for operations, he said. “Patients screamed in pain, but they also screamed for water,” he said.
The WHO reiterated calls for a ceasefire to provide essential supplies to health facilities and for the immediate transfer of patients to Egypt.
According to Israeli sources, the Islamist Hamas uses health facilities as a hiding place for weapons, fighters and Israeli hostages.