Gaza warns health system on brink of collapse
Over 1,500 people, including hundreds of women and children, have been killed and thousands more injured in Gaza since Israel launched its retaliatory campaign against Hamas militants in response to the deadly raid last week, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said on Thursday.
“The patients and wounded in Gaza’s hospitals are laying on the floor as there are no beds in the ICU units, with patients piling up in front of the operation rooms,” the health official told Al Mayadeen, adding that the Palestinian health sector is on the brink of collapse amid the Israeli siege.
“We are in a critical situation,” Al-Qudra added in a separate interview with AP. “Ambulances can’t get to the wounded, the wounded can’t get to intensive care, the dead can’t get to the morgue.”
“Medicines are dwindling and have almost run out,” Qudra added. Health officials have introduced rationing to save fuel, directing electricity from generators toward the most essential hospital wards.
Gazans have been cut off from supplies of food, water, and electricity, as Israel declared war on Hamas and imposed a “full siege” of the territory after Saturday’s surprise assault killed more than 1,300 people in Israel.
As of Thursday night, the death toll in Gaza stood at 1,537 people, including around 500 children, with another 6,612 injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The health official noted that the casualties will continue to rise, as entire families are being buried under the rubble of their houses, while those rescued risk dying in overcrowded hospitals.
The IDF have dropped more than 6,000 munitions on Gaza since Saturday, leveling entire neighborhoods and driving 423,378 people or over 20% of the population out of their homes, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
