New York, 11 November, 2023 (GNP): The chief of the WHO issued a dire warning on Friday, saying that half of the 36 facilities in the Gaza Strip are no longer in operation and that the region’s healthcare system is “on its knees.”
The situation on the ground, as recounted by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a speech to the Security Council, is dire: “Hospital corridors crammed with the injured, the sick, and the dying; morgues overflowing; surgery without anesthesia; tens of thousands of displaced people sheltering at hospitals.”
Despite all, he claimed, “the health system is on its knees and is still providing life-saving care.”
In the battle that resulted from Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7, Tedros reported that there had been over 250 assaults on healthcare facilities, including strikes on clinics, hospitals, ambulances, and patients, in Gaza and the West Bank, and 25 of these attacks in Israel.
Half of #Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 2/3 of its primary health care centres are not functioning at all.
The health system is on its knees.
I thank the @UN Security Council for the opportunity to update on the health situation in #Gaza.https://t.co/vSW0PE373T pic.twitter.com/iepH4p6pIR
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 10, 2023
“Providing medicines, medical supplies, and fuel for hospital generators to enable health workers to provide care to the people they serve is the best way to support them,” he stated. He also reiterated the UN’s demand for a cease-fire and called for more aid to trickle in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
The head of WHO, who hails from the Tigray area of Ethiopia, remarked, “I understand what the children of Gaza must be going through because I went through the same thing as a child.”
“The sound of gunfire and shells whistling through the air; the smell of smoke after they struck; tracer bullets in the night sky; the fear; the pain; the loss — these things have stayed with me throughout my life.”
In a video speech to the Security Council, Marwan Jilani, the chairman of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, urged members to “do all you can to spare further deaths and sufferings.” The council has not passed a resolution about the war and is split on the matter.
He drew attention to the terrible circumstances in Gaza City’s Al-Quds hospital, which the Red Crescent claimed was targeted by Israeli snipers on Friday.
Our utmost concern is the direct threat to the lives of all those wounded and sick, together with tens of thousands of civilians, including thousands of children,” Jilani said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that its staff had observed “horrendous images that have now gotten worse due to sharpened hostilities” while distributing vital supplies to medical facilities throughout Gaza in recent days.
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It added in a statement that this was negatively impacting ambulances and hospitals, as well as negatively affecting patients, citizens, and medical personnel.
“The Gaza medical system has reached a breaking point due to overcrowding, low supplies, and growing risks.”
Since Israel’s conflict with Hamas broke out a little over a month ago, medical workers and facilities throughout Gaza have been targeted on many occasions.
Such attacks have dealt “a heavy blow to the health care system in Gaza, which is severely weakened after more than one month of heavy fighting,” ICRC said.
“The destruction affecting hospitals in Gaza is becoming unbearable and needs to stop,” William Schomburg, head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza, said in Friday’s statement.
