The World Health Organization warned this Saturday that forcing the evacuation of thousands of patients from already overflowing hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip could be “equivalent to a death sentence.”
(You may be interested: Israel overwhelms Gaza with bombings and multiplies signs of imminent invasion)
Israel warned Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of expected ground offensive against Hamasa week after the bloody attack by that Palestinian Islamist group.
(Be sure to read: ‘We still hear explosions’: Colombian family tells of the aftermath of the trip to Israel)
“WHO strongly condemns Israel’s repeated orders to evacuate 22 hospitals caring for more than 2,000 patients in northern Gaza”the UN health agency said in a statement.
“The forced evacuation of patients and healthcare workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe,” he added.
(Also read: ‘Hamas is the invention of Mossad to divide the Palestinian people’: President Petro)
Moving 2,000 patients to southern Gaza, “where health facilities are already operating at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a drastic increase in the number of patients, could amount to a death sentence,” the WHO said.
According to the organization, the lives of many patients in critical condition “hanging by a thread”, in reference to people in intensive care or dependent on life support, newborns in incubators, patients on hemodialysis and women with pregnancy complications.
The WHO noted that health workers in northern Gaza now face the “distressing choice” of abandoning critically ill patients or endangering them by transporting them.
New airstrikes by Israel
Israel launched new airstrikes on northern Gaza on Saturday ahead of an expected ground offensive against Hamas commanders.
The week of Israeli attacks was triggered by the Oct. 7 raid by Islamist fighters, which They crossed the heavily fortified border and shot, stabbed and burned more than 1,300 people.
In Gaza, According to health authorities, more than 2,200 people died. As on the Israeli side, the majority were civilians.
AFP
#warns #evacuating #patients #Gaza #hospitals #death #sentence