Gaza Strip: “chaotic, catastrophic” situation at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younes
Concern is growing this Saturday, February 17 for the patients stuck in the Nasser hospital in Khan Younès, in Gaza, stormed by the Israeli army, whose incessant bombings on the Palestinian territory have left dozens dead in the night, according to the Hamas health ministry.
At Nasser hospital, here in December 2023. AFP - STRINGER
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Six patients, including a child, have died since Friday due to power cuts which caused the cessation of the distribution of oxygen after the assault by Israeli troops against the Nasser hospital, according to a new report on Saturday from the Ministry of Health. the Health of the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in Gaza. “
Newborns risk dying in the coming hours
,” added the ministry, which reported around a hundred people killed overnight by Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip. According to him, five doctors in charge of 120 patients are still in a building at the Nasser hospital without electricity, water, food and oxygen.
Israeli forces “
are still detaining many medical staff, patients and internally displaced persons in the maternity building, and subjecting them to interrogation in inhumane conditions
,” he added.
On Friday evening, the Israeli army said on its Telegram account that it had discovered mortar shells, grenades and other weapons belonging to Hamas, and captured "
dozens
" of suspects in the hospital, including "
more than 20 terrorists having participated in the massacre of October 7
.
Also read: Israel: gun attack kills at least two people in the south of the country
Untenable situation
The Israeli army said Friday that its troops had found medicines with the names of hostages written on them in the Nasser hospital. She also said she repaired the hospital's generator, which she denies having targeted, and installed a second emergency one.
But doctors described an untenable situation in this hospital, located in a city transformed into a field of ruins and surrounded by fighting, and where thousands of displaced people had taken refuge. Doctors Without Borders announced that its employees had “
had to flee, leaving the sick behind
.” “
The situation was chaotic, catastrophic
,” Christopher Lockyear, MSF secretary general, told AFP.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Nasser hospital, one of eleven that remain open out of the 36 in the Gaza Strip before the war, is now “
barely functional
”. “
More damage to hospitals means more lives lost
,” declared WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic during a press briefing Friday in Geneva, demanding urgent access from WHO to the hospital complex.
Meanwhile, the international community is increasing its calls to dissuade Israel from launching an offensive in the overcrowded city of Rafah, where nearly a million and a half civilians are trapped against the closed border with Egypt. The European Union said on Friday it was “
very concerned
” by this prospect, and urged Israel “
not to undertake military action in Rafah which would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation
”. Witnesses reported explosions this Saturday in the center and east of Rafah where at least two houses were targeted by airstrikes, according to the same sources.
(with
AFP
)
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