Israeli strike on hospital ‘further cripples’ Gaza’s fragile health system

An Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday has further jeopardized already limited access to lifesaving medical care in the war-torn enclave.

Several staff members, including two nurses, were injured in the strike on the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Khan Younis according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health and health agencies, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular news briefing in New York.

The incident follows a separate strike on Sunday on Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which had been a key facility treating victims of Israeli airstrikes in the north.

“The latest strikes on hospitals further cripples Gaza's health care system,” Mr. Dujarric said.

“There are currently very few beds available in hospitals and patients are being accommodated in tents.”

He added that according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), only 21 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain “just partially functional” and almost all have sustained some damage in the conflict.

He further reported that, according to health partners, there is an urgent need for thousands of blood units for life-saving operations.

Furthermore, there are serious concerns that food warehouses have reached “very low levels” as no aid has entered Gaza in weeks.

Meanwhile, amid the devastation a rare moment of relief came as humanitarians in Gaza successfully installed a backup generator at Kamal Adwan Hospital to power a water system producing 20 cubic metres of clean water per hour.

Mr. Dujarric reiterated the UN’s call on all parties to ensure that civilians are respected and always protected, and that they have the basic necessities to survive.

“All hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally, and a ceasefire must be restored and renewed without delay,” he added. 

“Mass casualty events are now the norm and those hospitals that are treating trauma patients are doing so amid severe shortages of critical supplies, including critical medicine,” Olga Cherevko from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, told UN News.

It has now been seven weeks since crossings were closed to all relief supplies meant for the people of Gaza, and nearly a month since Israeli bombardment resumed in the enclave amid disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the terms of a ceasefire extension that include the release of all hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

According to OCHA, more than 390,000 people have been displaced since Israeli bombing began again on 18 March.

In recent days, top UN officials have rebuffed Israeli assertions that there was enough food to feed all Palestinians, insisting that they were “far from the reality on the ground”. The global body’s top emergency relief official, Tom Fletcher, also stated that aid teams are "deliberately blocked from saving lives in Gaza”, leading to further civilian deaths.

According to the Gazan health authorities, well over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed and 115,688 Palestinians injured during the conflict. This includes 1,449 people killed and 3,647 injured since the escalation of hostilities on 18 March.

“Supplies that we had are rapidly running out and we're running out of food of medicine, of shelter and every other life-critical item if the situation does not change immediately,” Ms. Cherevko stressed. “The catastrophe that is in Gaza will become worse and the needs of the people will become even higher. This cannot continue. Civilians must be protected and the crossings must be reopened immediately.”