UN health official sees rise in amputations at Gaza hospitals

A World Health Organization official who visited two hospitals in Gaza’s devastated north in recent days describes dire conditions there.

Sean Casey says in a briefing that the Al-Ahli Hospital and Shifa Hospital are overwhelmed with sick and critically wounded people. WHO says the hospitals are barely able to function because of a shortage of staff, electricity and basic supplies.

Casey describes a rise in amputations in the north, including among small children, that would not have been necessary if proper health services were available.

“There’s no surgery happening right now in northern Gaza,” Casey says. He also says nearly everyone he met was hungry.

Israel ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza, which includes Gaza City and was home to over 1 million people, in the early days of the war. Ground troops isolated the north later that month.

But tens of thousands of residents remain there, including many who were unable to leave or did not feel anywhere else would be safer as Israel bombards all parts of the besieged territory.

Israel maintains, though, that most of the people still roaming northern Gaza are Hamas fighters.