TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / December 13, 2024
“There is an absolute lack of medical supplies and consumables, there is a lack of surgical specialities that match the nature of the injuries” arriving at the hospital.
Israel has thrice denied the World Health Organization (WHO) access to the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza in the last four days, despite dire conditions, the United Nations agency said.
The organization “was denied three times in the last four days to access the hospital to deliver medical supplies and fuel; transfer critical patients to Al-Shifa Hospital; and deploy an international emergency medical team,” the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X on Thursday.
“Currently, there are 96 patients in the hospital, and health staff urgently need support,” he added, urging “the immediate facilitation of humanitarian missions to the hospital, and an end to hostilities.”
‘Lack of supplies’
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital’s director, confirmed in a video message that a WHO representative informed him that Israel “did not approve the entry” of a UN convoy “carrying a quantity of fuel and some medical supplies and it was returned to the south of the Gaza Strip.”
“There is an absolute lack of medical supplies and consumables, there is a lack of surgical specialties that match the nature of the injuries” arriving at the hospital, Dr. Abu Safiya stressed.
He highlighted the killing of Dr. Saeed Joda, the sole orthopaedic surgeon serving northern Gaza, in an Israeli drone strike on Thursday.
The killing occurred “while he was on his way” to the hospital to assess a medical case, said the director. In addition, a nurse by the name of Kareem Jaradat “was also targeted by a reconnaissance drone” and killed “immediately”.
“This is the situation, unfortunately,” stated Dr. Abu Safiya, adding that the hospital “is paying the price in its staff.”
Constant threats
“We now work under bombardment every day and under threats, fear, and terror, under the scattering of shrapnel,” he said.
“I appeal to the world once again for a swift and urgent intervention to protect the healthcare system, its buildings, medical staff, and to allow the entry of all that is required from aid, supplies, ambulances, and surgical medical delegations,” the director urged.
The death of Dr. Joda brings the total number of medical personnel killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip to 1,750 since the beginning of Israel’s military onslaught on October 7, 2023.
Statistics from the Government Media Office in Gaza indicate that 34 hospitals and 80 health centers have been rendered non-functional due to Israeli strikes. Additionally, 162 health facilities and 135 ambulances have been targeted.
Since October 5, Israeli forces have intensified their military operations in northern Gaza, including a new ground invasion, which Palestinians believe is intended to displace them.
Ongoing genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,875 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 106,454 wounded.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Millions displaced
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
