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Geneva - Thousands of wounded and sick people are facing slow death in the Gaza Strip due to hunger or a lack of basic medical care, as most hospitals in the enclave are out of service, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Thursday.
Euro-Med Monitor reported the deaths of scores of sick and injured individuals, including those in hospitals and clinics, as a result of inadequate medical care. It also documented a significant number of others who have died inside their homes, unable to be moved to hospitals, either because none existed in their area—as is currently the case north of Gaza City—or because existing facilities were taken over during Israeli ground incursions.
More patients die every day, the rights group confirmed, without having the chance to receive treatment in hospitals—a direct result of Israeli targeting of hospitals and the cutting off of humanitarian supplies.
Euro-Med Monitor said that access to health care is extremely limited throughout the Gaza Strip, particularly in Gaza City and the Strip’s northern areas. All hospitals in the northern part of Gaza are out of service; a health clinic that was previously bombed and besieged now has limited capacity; and a Red Crescent ambulance centre in Jabalia has been under siege for the past two days. With its buildings now destroyed, Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City has been turned into a shelter centre.
Following the destruction of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, medical personnel had to evacuate amid a shortage of medical supplies, power and water interruptions, and a very limited ability to provide any medical services to patients.
Forty-year-old injured “Bassem Odeh”, died in Al-Shifa Medical Complex of injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike on the northern Gaza Strip a few days ago, even though he suffered only moderate wounds. According to his family, Odeh suffered injuries to his lower limbs and was taken to Al-Shifa, but because there was not enough medical equipment available to treat him, he was left bleeding for days before he succumbed to his wounds.
Euro-Med Monitor also said that Samira Abu Awad, 38, died in her home in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood after suffering health complications, as she was a heart patient prior to the ongoing genocide. Her family was unable to move her to any hospital for treatment.
The Euro-Med Monitor team also pointed out that a 67-year-old elderly man, Eid al-Jaal, starved to death in his home in the Al-Sahaba neighbourhood in central Gaza City. His death occurred after Israeli army vehicles and tanks surrounded his home for days. Euro-Med Monitor said it is working to record dozens of additional accounts of sick and injured people who died in different parts of Gaza City and the Strip’s northern areas without access to medical care, as hospital operations have been completely suspended.
Warning of an unprecedented worsening of the catastrophic conditions faced by patients and remaining health workers in Gaza City and the Strip’s northern areas, Euro-Med Monitor cautioned that hundreds of injured and chronically ill people, pregnant women, and newborns are facing imminent death if the international community fails to put a stop to Israel’s genocide of Gazans.
The Geneva-based organisation stated that Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is severely overcrowded with patients in need of emergency care. Bodies have been placed in its courtyard, as it the current Israeli attacks make it impossible to bury them in a safe and dignified manner.
Al-Ahli Hospital was the only operating hospital in the northern Gaza Valley until two days ago, when the operating rooms were shut down due to a lack of medical supplies, energy, fuel, food, and water. This effectively leaves Gaza City and the Strip’s north without any hospital, as the four hospitals that still remain open there are barely operating, providing nearly nonexistent care despite the great efforts of staff, and virtually incapable of saving lives at this point.
Euro-Med Monitor highlighted that 23 out of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are out of service, while nine hospitals are partially operating, and four hospitals are operating with very limited services.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 800,000 Palestinians living in Gaza City and its northern region do not currently have access to health care. The World Health Organisation has also reported that the remaining hospitals in the Gaza Strip are suffering from a severe lack of fuel and basic supplies and are running at three times their capacity.
The conditions of Gazan patients are no longer a top priority, said Euro-Med Monitor, due to the focus on Israel’s heavy air, ground, and artillery attacks on the Strip, which have resulted in a record-breaking number of casualties. Thousands of patients are in urgent need of obtaining basic health services amid a total medical aid shortage and lack of fuel, water, and food supplies, along with over 2,000 cancer patients, 1,000 kidney failure patients, about 50,000 cardiovascular patients, more than 60,000 diabetics, and about 50,000 pregnant women. Thousands of elderly and bedridden patients lack any health care or access to medications, as is the case for many pregnant women and newborns, who are at risk of death from dehydration and malnutrition.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor warned that in the absence of medications, medical supplies, and other necessities, all patients will eventually and painfully die. The rights organisation emphasised the urgent need for a humanitarian ceasefire, to support the Gaza Strip’s remaining medical facilities and allow the necessary medical care to be administrated to those who are sick or injured.
Euro-Med Monitor further confirmed that Israel is carrying out the bloodiest campaign of mass punishment and killing in modern history against more than 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, which represents a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a grave violation of the rules of war.
The organisation renewed its call on the international community, especially the signatory states to the Geneva Convention, to bear their responsibilities; to provide protection for civilians in the Gaza Strip and for health care facilities there; to provide all of the necessary resources immediately; and to ensure that civilians and medical facilities are never targeted.