NEW YORK – The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the majority of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals have been put out of action due to the Israeli war on the besieged enclave.
Remaining medical facilities face dire shortages, the organisation noted.
At al-Aqsa Hospital, the last functioning hospital in central Gaza, a WHO team on Sunday witnessed what it said were “sickening scenes,” with patients being treated on blood-streaked floors, according to a social media post from WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“They’re treating children on the floor. … The floor is actually covered in blood. There are patients coming in every few minutes,” Sean Casey, the WHO emergency medical teams coordinator in Gaza, said in a video from the hospital.
He added that due to evacuation orders and the dangerous situation, there were only five doctors left to oversee hundreds of emergency cases and casualties. “It is really a chaotic scene.”
A UN team on Friday delivered medical supplies to Gaza authorities in Khan Yunis, and WHO coordinator Casey said it was “the first time we’ve been able to make this delivery in about 10 days.”
“Hospitals have been running short on some supplies,” he said, adding that medical facilities were “working at two or three times their normal capacity.”
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