Staff at the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza remain under siege and entirely cut off from aid supplies as bombardment by the Israeli military intensifies.
The Al-Awda Hospital, run by ActionAid’s partner Al-Awda, is the only hospital still partially functioning in the north of Gaza – where an estimated 75,000 people remain – after the Kamal Adwan and Indonesian Hospital were both put out of service.
Dr Mohammad Salha, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital, told ActionAid in a voice note message:
“The situation outside the hospital is very dangerous now… The Israeli occupation forces in the hospital’s vicinity are burning houses, randomly shooting at the hospital and its surroundings in addition to throwing bombs in the hospital yard.
No one can move outside the hospital fence…no one can move because the occupation forces are targeting everything that moves in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Staff are treating patients trapped inside the hospital as best they can despite receiving no supplies of vital aid for more than three months.
Dr Salha continued:
“Since the beginning of the ground operation on October 5th until now… [none] of the medical supplies or fuel necessary to operate [Al Awda] hospital have reached [us]. Until this moment, the occupation forces have prevented the entry of medicines, medical supplies, food and fuel to Al-Awda Hospital.
We hope that this ground operation will end urgently and allow the World Health Organization and our partners to bring in the necessary supplies to operate the hospital and provide our services.”
All 16 of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, which are still partially functioning, are experiencing severe shortages of fuel, jeopardizing their ability to continue saving lives. Services have already been reduced at several facilities, and health officials are warning that ventilators and incubators are at risk of being forced to shut down.
ActionAid demands that the Israeli authorities end the blockade on aid immediately and that fuel and other essential supplies be urgently delivered to hospitals so that they can continue their lifesaving work. The outrageous attacks on Al-Awda Hospital and all other healthcare facilities must stop, and there must be accountability for all atrocities committed.
ENDS
For media requests, please email christal.james@actionaid.org or call 7046659743.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.
