
Devastation of the hospital and its courtyard by Israeli attacks -- image via Al Jazeera video screenshot
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Saturday, December 28, that an Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital had "put the last major health facility in North Gaza out of service." They noted that the "systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days on North Gaza puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk."
This comes on the heels of a UNICEF report on Thursday that found that in "the final days of the year, there seems to be no end in sight to the deadly threats to children in Gaza. Over the past three days, at least eleven children have reportedly been killed in attacks. Now, we are also witnessing children dying from the cold and a lack of adequate shelter."
According to the WHO initial reports about the hospital raid "indicate that some areas of the hospital were burnt and severely damaged during the raid, including the laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operations theatre, and the medical store. Earlier in the day, twelve patients and a female health staff were reportedly forced to evacuate to destroyed and non-functional Indonesian Hospital where it is not possible to provide any care, while the majority of the staff, stable patients and companions were moved to a nearby location. Additionally, some people were reportedly stripped and forced to walk toward southern Gaza. Over the last two months, the area around the hospital has remained highly volatile and attacks on the hospitals and on health workers have occurred almost daily. This week, bombardments in its vicinity reportedly killed 50 people, including five health workers from Kamal Adwan Hospital."
They are also concerned about the director of the hospital, Dr. Abu Safiya, who is thought to have been detained during the raid. There has been no contact with him.
The "deployment of international emergency medical teams has been repeatedly denied and, despite the increasingly dire needs for emergency and trauma services and supplies, only 10 out of 21 WHO missions to Kamal Adwan have been partially facilitated between early October and December."
UNICEF reports that according to the "Palestinian Ministry of Health, four newborns and infants have died from hypothermia in recent days. These preventable deaths lay bare the desperate and deteriorating conditions facing families and children across Gaza. With temperatures expected to drop further in the coming days, it is tragically foreseeable that more children's lives will be lost to the inhumane conditions they are enduring, which offer no protection from the cold."
The situation is truly dire. In November "an average of 65 truckloads of assistance entered Gaza daily, far too little to adequately address the urgent needs of children, women and other civilians. The most northern part of Gaza has now been under a near-total siege for more than two months."
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