Monday, the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), Rik Peeperkorn, said PK Press Club On the desperate conditions he had seen in Al-Ahli before the attack, and to a severe restriction on the movement which prevents thousands of people evacuated for medical treatment outside Gaza.
“I was in Gaza several weeks ago and I released in early March, just before the help of help and the attacks started again.
When I was there, during the ceasefire, we organized polio vaccinations and medicinal evacuations (medical evacuations), and we supplied with essential medicine and medical supplies. It was also the only time there were appropriate food stocks in Gaza.
There was almost a glimmer of hope among all the misery. Places where I had been before, like Rafah to the south, or Jabalia in the North, were completely devastation waste, but people, including our own staff, returned home, trying to repair the destroyed houses or build makeshift camps. You have seen commercial activities restart and a choice of food.
But then, of course, with the blockade, food, water and essential drugs very quickly started to run out. Even if we have refueled during the ceasefire, we are now extremely low on supplies and it is difficult to keep hospitals even partly open.
We completely missed therapeutic milk, antibiotics, to treat serious infections, pain relievers of trauma, insulin, ambulance spare parts, oxygen tanks, etc.
Medical evacuation of Gaza patients (file)
A few days before the attack on Al Ahli, a specialist doctor there told us that the hospital was already overflowing because it is one of the key hospitals in the northern for traumatized patients [those who have suffered severe and life-threatening injuries]And that they were forced to carry out surgery in questionable sterile conditions.
They lacked enough surgical dresses, curtains or gloves. They even had to wear the same gloves from one operation to another. Due to the lack of equipment, surgeries could take hours, increasing the risk of permanent disability or amputations.
The staff asked us for the supplies we have in our two warehouses in southern Gaza, but we were not allowed.
This aid block must be lifted, and we must resume an arrangement by which we can have humanitarian corridors in any Gaza, without being refused or delayed. Even when a war takes place, humanitarian supplies should be allowed to do and humanitarian workers should be able to do their job.
Today, I spoke to my leaders in Gaza, who went to the Al-Shifa hospital. Al-Shifa, now the main surgical and traumatic center for the North, is completely overwhelmed and under-support. We are considering the possibility of obtaining certain Al-Shifa patients in the south, but everything is complex.
Too few patients were able to leave Gaza for the urgent care they desperately need. We estimate that up to 12,000 patients need medical evacuation, but from the blockade, we have been able to evacuate only 121 people, including 73 children.
We call the immediate recovery of medical evacuation through all possible paths. It should happen now.
