The blockaded Gaza strip had 24 operational health facilities before the war. (File)
The global health body has raised an alarm for the emergency department at Gaza’s largest hospital that has been devastated by the Israeli bombardments, describing it as “bloodbath” that is “in need of resuscitation”.
World Health Organization’s alarm for Al-Shifa hospital comes amid an Israeli ground operation into the Gaza strip that aims to neutralise the Hamas group that had launched a massive attack in October.
A WHO team that delivered medical supplies to the hospital yesterday described the emergency department as “bloodbath”, the organisation said in a statement.
WHO delivers health supplies to Al-Shifa Hospital, appeals for continued access to address urgent needs in north #Gaza
WHO staff participated in a joint UN mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza on 16 December to deliver health supplies and assess the situation in the… pic.twitter.com/gIa3tG97mC
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 16, 2023
It said tens of thousands of displaced people have taken shelter in the hospital building and grounds, and there is “severe shortage” of drinking water and food. The department had hundreds of patients and new ones kept arriving every minute. “Patients with trauma injuries were being sutured on the floor and no pain management is available,” it said.
The WHO said Al-Shifa is functioning at a minimal scale with very few staff. The situation isn’t better at Al Awda and Al Sahaba Medical Complex, and Al-Ahli Arab is the only “partially functioning” hospital in entire north Gaza. The blockaded strip had 24 operational health facilities before the war.
Those critical are being transferred to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital for surgeries as operation theatres are not working due to a lack of oxygen and supplies.
“Once the most important and largest referral hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa now houses only a handful of doctors and a few nurses, together with 70 volunteers, working under what WHO staff described as “unbelievably challenging circumstances” and calling it a “hospital in need of resuscitation”,” the WHO posted on X.
Currently, only 30 patients at the hospital can receive dialysis daily.
The Al-Shifa hospital will be reinforced in the coming weeks so it can resume basic services, the WHO has said.
“Up to 20 operating theatres in the hospital, as well as post-operative care services, can be activated if provided with regular supplies of fuel, oxygen, medicines, food, and water,” it said.
Israeli bombardments have affected all health infrastructure in the Gaza strip with the country accusing the Palestinian Hamas group of running a command centre below the hospital. Officials at the hospital had denied such claims.
The Israeli counterattack began following Hamas’s October 7’s terror attack on Israeli territory that led to 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, while more than 200 hostages were taken across the Gaza border. The death count on Gaza side has crossed 18,800, mostly comprising women and children.