From the Liveblog of
Monday, March 25, 2024
Aid groups describe ‘unimaginable’ situation at hospital near Khan Younis
Aid groups release a statement after they visited a Gaza hospital where they witnessed an “unimaginable” situation in which large open wounds were left untreated.
An emergency medical team organized by three aid groups spent two weeks carrying out surgeries and other care at the European Gaza Hospital near Khan Younis.
The team says healthcare workers were forced to evacuate or were unable to access the hospital.
It charges that Israeli restrictions led to shortages of medical supplies, including basics like gauze and plates and screws used to stabilize broken bones.
The visiting surgeons “reported large infected open wounds on patients and having to administer emergency nutritional supplies to patients as the lack of food was jeopardizing patient treatment.”
Hospitals in Gaza are struggling amid the ongoing war that erupted when Palestinian terror group Hamas launched a massive cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The terrorists also abducted 253 people who were taken as hostages in Gaza, over half of whom remain captive.
Israel responded with an air, sea and ground military campaign to destroy Hamas, remove it from power in Gaza and free the hostages.
Many of the enclave’s hospitals have been shut at various times, with some of them directly hit or raided, and those still functioning are under growing pressure. Israel has provided evidence Hamas uses such facilities as cover for terror purposes and says the group plunders humanitarian aid to take supplies for its fighters, depriving the civilian population.
International aid officials say the entire population of the Gaza Strip — 2.3 million people — is suffering from food insecurity and that famine is imminent in the hard-hit north.
Israel insists that there are no limits to the amount of inspected aid whose entry into Gaza it’s willing to facilitate and that the UN is failing to keep pace, while Hamas and armed groups divert assistance from civilians.
