Israel-Hamas war: WHO says moving severely ill people in Gaza is a death sentence

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday (Oct 13) that local authorities in Gaza informed it that evacuating vulnerable patients from the northern part of the region was impossible after the Israeli military called for civilians to relocate south within 24 hours. According to a report by the news agency Reuters, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said that there were severely ill people (in Gaza) whose injuries meant their only chances of survival were on life support, such as mechanical ventilators.

"So moving those people is a death sentence. Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel," Jasarevic said. He pointed out that hospitals have only a few hours of electricity per day as they have been forced to ration depleting fuel reserves and rely on generators to sustain the most critical functions. "And even those functions will have to cease in a few days when fuel stocks run out," the WHO spokesperson added.

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He also said that time was running out to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, if fuel, water, food and life-saving health and humanitarian supplies could not be urgently delivered to the Gaza Strip amidst the complete blockage.

Hospitals in Gaza at a breaking point: WHO

The WHO already warned that hospitals in the Gaza Strip were at a breaking point. Hospitals in the south of the Gaza Strip were overflowing, and two major hospitals in the north already exceeded their combined 760-bed capacity, the United Nations health agency said.

The Gaza Strip is also experiencing a shortage of hospital blood banks and medicine, it added.

Eleven medical personnel killed in Gaza since start of latest conflict: WHO

As per the WHO, there have been 34 attacks on health facilities in Gaza since the beginning of last week's conflict, killing 11 medical personnel, injuring 16 others, and destroying 19 medical facilities and 20 ambulances.

"Hospitals in Gaza simply cannot handle such a huge number of patients. The hospitals are exhausting medical resources to treat the wounded of air strikes," Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, said on Friday.

Gaza's medical resources are almost exhausted. Muhammad Ghoneim, an emergency doctor at Al-Shifa Hospital, said that many hospitals are expected to stop using ventilators and various surgeries, which will deal a fatal blow to the injured in hospital.

(With inputs from agencies)

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