Last week saw international media attention focus on the fate of Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, which is the Strip’s largest, after thousands of Palestinians took shelter there. Israeli forces had stormed and took control of it while alleging the large hospital complex served as a Hamas base of operations. As of Monday a UN World Health Organization (WHO) team has reached the hospital, after Al-Shifa stopped functioning, and described a “death zone”:
WHO said that there are 24 health workers and 291 patients at the hospital, including 32 babies in critical condition, two people in intensive care without ventilation and 22 patients on dialysis whose treatment has been “severely compromised.” It noted that the hospital is no longer operating and that there have been a number of patient deaths in the last two to three days.
The WHO in a new statement described, “Lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid over the last 6 weeks have caused Al-Shifa Hospital — once the largest, most advanced and best equipped referral hospital in Gaza — to essentially stop functioning as a medical facility.”
The…
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