Palestinian groups also took hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza. (document)
Geneva, Switzerland:
The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that an estimated 8,000 patients would need to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip, expressing disappointment that few patients had been moved out of the besieged area so far.
The World Health Organization said moving these patients out of Gaza would relieve some of the pressure on medical staff and hospitals that keep operations in the war zone.
“We estimate that 8,000 Gazans need to be moved outside Gaza,” Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Palestinian territories, told a news conference from Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.
He said an estimated 6,000 of them were conflict-related, including patients with multiple wounds, burns and amputations.
Another 2,000 patients were ordinary patients, he said, noting that before the war began, 50 to 100 patients were transferred from Gaza to East Jerusalem and the West Bank every day, about half of whom were cancer patients.
According to an AFP tally of Israeli data, Hamas launched an attack on October 7 that killed about 1,160 people in Israel, and the Gaza War broke out.
Palestinian militants also took hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory bombing and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 30,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
“A lot of pressure”
Between October 7 and February 20, only 2,293 patients were referred for treatment outside Gaza.
Pieperkorn said the process involved not only the World Health Organization but also authorities in Gaza, Israel and Egypt, as well as hospital directors.
He said the World Health Organization has been pushing for a streamlined medical evacuation system since November and “we don’t understand … why that basically hasn’t happened”.
He said Egypt, other Middle Eastern countries and some European countries have expressed willingness to take in patients and their companions.
“We want to see and are pushing for organized, sustained medical evacuations. First and foremost for patients who need and deserve better care,” Pieperkorn said.
“But it will also help relieve the enormous pressure on these collapsing health services in Gaza.”
Pieperkorn said that 23 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are not functioning, and the remaining hospitals are only partially or minimally functioning.
He added that 1,500 people had undergone amputations since the conflict began, citing data from Gaza’s health ministry.
As early as early November, after the first batch of injured people were evacuated, the World Health Organization stated that Al-Arish Hospital, located in Egypt’s major city closest to the border, would become the main first-referral hospital and subsequently refer to Egypt’s second-tier hospitals.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Follow us on Google news ,Twitter , and Join Whatsapp Group of thelocalreport.in
