Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other humanitarian agencies United Nations have managed to access the Al Shifa hospitalmain of Loop and scene of violent combats in the last week, to be able to analyze the situation in the medical center.
In a statement from the WHO sent in the early hours of today, the organization emphasizes that the mission had guarantees of safe access by the Israeli Defense Forces but it was “high-risk” due to the fact that there are still hostilities in the vicinity of the hospital.
LOOK HERE: All hospitals in Gaza capital out of service, warns Gaza Ministry of Health
The mission, also made up of those responsible for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), was carried out after Israeli forces on Saturday ordered the forced evacuation of 2,500 internally displaced people taking refuge in the hospital, as well as doctors and patients.
“Due to the time limits set and the insecurity situation, the team was only able to spend one hour inside the hospital, which they described as a ‘dead zone’ in which the situation is ‘desperate’.“said the WHO statement.
The members of the mission, whose task was to examine priorities for action and possible evacuations of those remaining there, verified that the hospital had evidence of having suffered bombings, shootings, and saw how more than 80 people had been buried in a common grave. at the hospital entrance.
The center lacked clean water, fuel, medicine and other basic needs, which has caused the Al Shifa hospitalin its day the largest and most advanced of Loop“Broadly speaking, it has ceased to function as a medical facility”.
In a building whose hallways were full of garbage that increases the risk of infection, “Patients and medical staff were terrified and begging to be evacuated”, highlighted the members of the team that visited the building.
The WHO indicates that after the evacuations, 25 health workers and 291 patients remain in Al Shifasome in extremely critical condition, including two in intensive care, 22 on dialysis and 32 babies.
Al Shifa stopped admitting new patients and now new wounded and sick are directed to the nearby Indonesian Hospitalwhose situation is also at its limit due to overcrowding and lack of supplies, highlighted the WHO.
In Al Shifa “most patients are victims of trauma caused by war”, including some with amputations and around thirty with serious spinal injuries that prevent them from moving without medical assistance, the WHO added.
MORE INFORMATION: Hundreds of evacuees in Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital after Israeli order but still with patients inside
After learning of the situation, the health organization of the UN He indicated that he is preparing plans for the evacuation of the patients who still remain in the hospital, and it is expected that there will be new missions from this and other agencies within 24-72 hours to be able to carry them out.
The patients would be taken to Nasser Medical Complex and the European Gaza Hospitalboth in southern Gaza, the organization indicated, clarifying however that both are already working at the limit of their capacity.
The official spokesman of the Israeli Army, Daniel Hagariannounced at a press conference on Saturday that its troops continue to operate in the medical center in order to discover underground infrastructure of Hamas, which they accuse of having its main command center under the hospital.
