New York: Europe and the Arabs
A team from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs visited Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, where they witnessed the influx of large numbers of wounded to receive urgent treatment. The World Health Organization was informed that most hospital staff had to leave due to evacuation orders and insecurity. According to what was stated in the daily news bulletin of the United Nations
Reports indicate that only 5 doctors remain, while the hospital administration reports that there is no food for health workers. Sean Casey, coordinator of the emergency medical team at the World Health Organization, spoke about the difficult situation in Al-Aqsa Hospital, noting the many wounded “who are being treated in the emergency department, lying on the ground or on stretchers after an explosion.”
He added: “Many people were injured in the explosion. There is a child who unfortunately died and his body was not identified. The scene, as you can see, is chaotic. Unfortunately, this site is close to the area that was evacuated yesterday. The evacuation order was issued, and the hospital lost many of its employees, so it cannot work.” "Currently with about 30 percent of the staff that was there just a few days ago. The hospital receives, at times, hundreds of victims every day in a small emergency department. They told me that yesterday they had one doctor working all night in an emergency department that had hundreds of people." .
Protecting hospitals
Those in charge of Al-Aqsa Hospital stated that the health facility lacks many urgent needs, especially health workers, medical supplies, and beds. But they said their greatest need was to ensure that the hospital, its staff, patients and families were protected from bombing and hostilities.
With more sick and wounded arriving at the hospital every few minutes, Sean Casey of the World Health Organization said: “The director of the hospital just spoke to us and said his only request is to protect this hospital. Even though many of his staff have left and the hospital is under enormous pressure, The only request from its director is that the international community ensure that the hospital and other similar hospitals are protected and not bombed, that they are not evacuated, and that their workers can continue their work.”
The WHO team delivered medical supplies to support 4,500 patients requiring dialysis for 3 months and 500 patients requiring trauma treatment. The organization plans to facilitate the deployment of a much-needed emergency medical team to support Al-Aqsa Hospital's overworked doctors and nurses.
In this regard, Sean Casey said: “We are here to deliver some supplies, but also to make the necessary arrangements to send an emergency medical team to provide support, and we hope that will be in the next week or so, to add more human resources to this hospital.”
The World Health Organization said that Al-Aqsa Hospital is the most important hospital still operating in the central region of Gaza, and stressed the need to ensure its continued work and protection so that it can provide life-saving services.