UNRWA: Gaza is witnessing the largest displacement of the Palestinian people due to the war

Dina Mahmoud (Gaza, London)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) described what has been happening in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war as the largest displacement of the Palestinian people.
UNRWA said in a post on the X platform: “What happened in Gaza, during the past 100 days, is the largest displacement of the Palestinian people since 1948, and an entire generation of Palestinian children is suffering trauma, and thousands have been killed, maimed and orphaned.” .
In a related context, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that 350,000 people with chronic diseases in the Gaza Strip are not receiving their medications as a result of the ongoing war since October 7.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra warned in a statement yesterday of serious health complications to which these patients are exposed.
Al-Qudra called on international institutions to urgently provide medicines to those suffering from chronic diseases.
In another statement, Al-Qudra announced the running out of nitrous gas in operating rooms, and a severe shortage of other medical gases, without further details.
Nitrous gas is used to anesthetize patients during surgical operations.
At a time when the World Health Organization acknowledges that the number of hospitals that are still operating, even partially, in the Gaza Strip does not exceed the fingers of one hand, more medical personnel who continue to work under bombardment in the Strip confirm that their ability to continue providing their services to thousands of The sick and wounded there are greatly diminished by the impact of the war.
These cadres stressed that the health system in the entire sector had almost collapsed under the weight of the bombing, air strikes, and continuous ground operations since the seventh of last October, which led to major destruction to hospitals that were already suffering, before the outbreak of fighting, from a severe shortage of various necessary supplies. .
The number of attacks that the health sector and its facilities have been subjected to in Gaza since the outbreak of battles is estimated at more than 300, which led to the majority of the Strip’s hospitals stopping work, leaving no more than 15 medical facilities remaining, providing only very limited health care, at a time when there is an increasing number of attacks on the health sector and its facilities in Gaza. The number of people wounded due to the war, and the spread of deadly and infectious diseases, against the backdrop of deteriorating living conditions.
In a video report published on the website of the British newspaper The Guardian, doctors at Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, confirmed that the health system there has become “severely collapsed,” even within the emergency and intensive care department, which is designated for dealing with critically ill cases.
According to doctors, the department lacks most of the tools necessary for its work.
Also, the beds inside it, which were few in the first place, are no longer available now; Because it is used in the reception department, to accommodate the huge number of patients and wounded who flock to this place and the few other medical facilities that are still open in Gaza, which leads to doctors having to place those in serious cases on the ground, in many cases.
Doctors at the hospital indicated that they are working with minimal capabilities in the current period, saying that they have no alternative or other choice, even after the collapse struck the medical team itself, and the majority of its members fell prey to diseases in turn.