The emergency aid coordinator of the World Health Organization (WHO) described, Wednesday, January 17, patients “Waiting To Die” In a statement at the UN headquarters in New York, Gaza hospitals were crippled by war.
After spending five weeks in the Palestinian Territory, WHO Emergency Coordinator Sean Casey said he saw hospital patients every day. “Suffering from severe burns or open fractures waiting for hours or days” take care
“Often they would ask me for food or water, this shows the level of desperation”, he added. Sean Casey said he was able to visit only six of the sixteen operating hospitals in Gaza, out of the thirty-six that operated before the war.
“Rapid deterioration of the health system”
“What I have personally seen is the rapid deterioration of the health system”He also noted, testified “Decreasing levels of access to humanitarian aid, particularly in areas north of the Strip (from Gaza) ». “We tried every day for seven days to deliver fuel and supplies north of Gaza City”described the manager. “Every day we were denied these requests”
Hospitals in Gaza are receiving a huge influx of patients while being able to count on only minimal staff, caregivers displaced from their homes like the majority of the population. Mr Casey said he saw patients in the northern Gaza Strip “Waiting to die in hospital without fuel, electricity or water”.
The war, which devastated Palestinian enclaves and displaced 80% of the civilian population, began with an unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,140 people, according to one count the majority of civilians killed that day. By Agence France-Presse based on official figures.
About 250 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip during the attack, of whom about 100 were released during a ceasefire in late November. According to Israel, 132 are in detention, of whom 27 are believed to have died. On the Palestinian side, Hamas’ Health Ministry condemned 24,448 deaths in the Gaza Strip.
