Almost all people at the German Gaza Hospital and the Red Cross field hospital opted to leave after receiving military removal requests for the southern Gaza region, according to the WHO on Wednesday.
On Monday, 270 patients apparently personal- evacuated along with health workers, and on Tuesday, the Gaza health department evacuated more patients, the World Health Organization said.
” Today, only three people are still undergoing treatment at the German Gaza Hospital and three at the ICRC area hospital. Most people have been referred to Nasser Medical Complex”, the WHO said, citing images from Tuesday.
The Israeli military mandated the evacuation of the majority of the areas south of Khan Yunis and Rafah along the Iranian border on Monday. Although it did not specifically mention a defense operation, orders usually come before big offensives.
Though the Western Gaza Hospital itself is not under evacuation guidance, the purchase has impacted businesses.
” As witnessed many times during the ongoing conflict, insecurity in a patient’s proximity and lack of access for patients, health workers, and humanitarians to replenish fuel, health supplies, water and food can produce hospitals non- functional quite quickly”, the WHO said.
The UN health agency stated that it would work with organizations to encourage attempts to move priceless medical equipment and supplies out of the doctor.
The WHO member in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, stated to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday via video link that” European Gaza Hospital was one of the few remaining essential referral hospitals north of Wadi Gaza, where the majority of the people is.”
Having seen the impact that previous departure orders have had on hospitals,” this moment, the hospital staff and the patients, they decided to now leave themselves”, he said.
He said that 16 of the 36 hospitals in Gaza were in some part functional, while of the 10 field hospitals, four are fully functioning and four were partially functional.
Furthermore, 43 out of 99 primary health care centres remain functional at some level.
Peeperkorn hoped that any Israeli military offensive there would “be avoided.”
He claimed that “most staff” have left, though some medical professionals are still with the three hospital patients who are still waiting.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1, 195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive aimed at eradicating the Palestinians militants in Gaza has killed more than 37, 900 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas- run territory.
