WHO says evacuating Gaza patients a ‘death sentence’
Israel has warned about 1.1 million living in the north of the territory to flee to the south ahead of a ground incursion.
Forcing thousands of patients to evacuate to already overflowing hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip could be “tantamount to a death sentence”, the World Health Organisation said overnight on Saturday.
“WHO strongly condemns Israel’s repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2000 inpatients in northern Gaza,” the UN health agency said.
“The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe.”
Moving 2000 patients to southern Gaza, “where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number of patients, could be tantamount to a death sentence”, the WHO said.
Israel has warned about 1.1 million Gazans living in the north of the Palestinian territory to flee to the south ahead of a ground incursion that the military has indicated will focus on Gaza City, the base of the leadership of the Hamas militant group.
The Israeli military said Gaza City residents must not delay their departure but a spokesperson said late on Saturday that they still had time to leave and that the ground offensive would not start on Sunday.
Since Friday thousands of Gazans, who cannot leave the enclave as it is blockaded by both Israel and Egypt, have packed what belongings they can into bags and suitcases, to trudge through the rubble-strewn streets.
A stream of cars, trucks, three-wheeled vehicles and donkey-drawn carts joined the frantic mass movement south, all loaded with families and their belongings, mattresses, bedding and bags strapped onto the roofs of packed vehicles.
The WHO said the lives of many critically ill and fragile patients now “hang in the balance”. It referred to people in intensive care or relying on life support, newborns in incubators, patients undergoing haemodialysis and women with pregnancy complications. They and others “all face imminent deterioration of their condition or death if they are forced to move and are cut off from lifesaving medical attention while being evacuated”, the WHO said.
Israel pummelled northern Gaza with fresh airstrikes on Saturday and the Israeli military said the bodies of some of the dozens of hostages abducted by Hamas in its attacks had been found during operations inside Gaza. Hamas earlier reported 22 hostages had been killed in Israeli bombardments.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wearing a flak jacket, earlier visited troops on the border frontline, raising expectations of an imminent invasion.
“Are you ready for what is coming? More is coming,” he was heard telling several soldiers on a video released by his office.
A week of Israeli salvos was sparked by the Islamist fighters’ dawn raid, in which they broke through the heavily fortified border and gunned down, stabbed and burnt to death more than 1300 people. In Gaza, health officials said more than 2200 people had been killed. As on the Israeli side, most of them were civilians.
The WHO said health workers in northern Gaza were now facing an “agonising choice” between abandoning critically ill patients, putting their own lives at risk by remaining on site, or endangering their patients’ lives while trying to transport them to southern hospitals “that have no capacity to receive them.
“Overwhelmingly, care-givers have chosen to stay behind and honour their oaths as health professionals to ‘do no harm’,” the WHO said.
“Health workers should never have to make such impossible choices”
Alarm has grown over the fate of Palestinian civilians in blockaded and besieged Gaza – one of the world’s most densely populated areas, home to 2.4 million – if it becomes the scene of intense urban combat and house-to-house fighting. Aid agencies have said forcing Gazans to move is impossible while the war rages. But with food, water, fuel and medical supplies running low because of an Israeli blockade, aid agencies are warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis.
“The situation is catastrophic,” said Jumaa Nasser, who travelled from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza with his wife, mother and seven children. “We’ve had no food or sleep. We don’t know what to do. I’ve given my fate up to God,” he said.
Exiled Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel on Saturday of committing “war crimes” in Gaza but he ruled out any “displacement” of Gazans, including to Egypt. Hamas is regularly accused by Israel of using civilians as human shields.
Chinese envoy Zhai Jun will visit the Middle East this week to push for a ceasefire and promote peace talks, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday.
AFP
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