Hospitals in northern Gaza completely out of service: health official | Israel-Palestine conflict news
A spokesman for the Gaza health ministry says that the occupancy rate in hospitals in the northern part of the sea has reached 190 percent and they are overflowing with the wounded.
Hospitals in northern Gaza are now completely out of service, according to the besieged Ministry of Health.
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Gaza health ministry, said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the occupancy rate in hospitals in northern Gaza has reached 190 percent.
Israel bombed and destroyed parts of al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, where more than 700 people are still being held under siege by the Israeli army, according to al-Qudra.
Last week, Israeli forces seized the hospital to find what they said was a Hamas tunnel network and command center built under the building. Hamas has denied the allegations.
A group of 28 premature babies were evacuated from al-Shifa Hospital to Egypt to receive treatment on Monday, according to Palestinian authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO).
‘The Circle of Death’
Al-Qudra also said that around 120 people were evacuated from the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza to the Nasser Medical Center in the southern part of the Strip.
There are still more than 400 injured people inside the Indonesian Hospital, as well as about 200 medical workers and more than 2,000 others taking shelter, he said.
The Israeli army has placed those inside the hospital in a “circle of death”, targeting anyone who moves around or inside the hospital, al-Qudra said.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in attacks on the Jakarta-funded hospital, which is currently surrounded by Israeli tanks.
The WHO said on the same day that the Indonesian Hospital was only able to provide basic services, with the lives of people with serious injuries and other medical emergencies at immediate risk.
Al-Qudra also said that Israeli airstrikes targeted the house of the assistant secretary of the Gaza health ministry on Tuesday morning, adding that 56 of his relatives were in the house who were expelled from different areas of Gaza.
Rescue teams managed to find 17 bodies while the rest are still under the rubble, according to the spokesman.
A difficult situation
Hospitals in northern Gaza and Gaza City have faced power outages due to fuel shortages and Israeli attacks.
They have also faced severe shortages of water, essential medicines and supplies as Israel continues ground operations and airstrikes on the border.
The WHO says it has recorded 335 attacks on health facilities in the Palestinian territory since October 7, the start of the Gaza war, including 164 attacks in the Gaza Strip and 171 attacks in the West Bank.
These attacks have led to large emergency evacuations from hospitals, and several deaths and injuries among patients, their companions, and displaced people taking refuge there, according to the WHO.
At least 13,000 Palestinians – around 5,600 of them children and 3,500 women – have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its air and ground assault on Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas targeting Israel, according to the health ministry. ‘ environment.
Hamas and allied groups took about 240 prisoners during their incursion into southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.
