Aid groups that visited a packed Gaza hospital described 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 southern city has seen heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants since the start of the year.
Quick Read
- Dire Conditions in Gaza Hospital: Aid groups reported extreme conditions at a Gaza hospital, with untreated large open wounds and a lack of basic medical supplies due to Israeli restrictions.
- Emergency Medical Team’s Efforts: A team from three aid organizations provided urgent medical care at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, a city heavily affected by the conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.
- Hospital Overcapacity: Originally a 200-bed facility, the European Gaza Hospital expanded to 1,000 beds to accommodate additional patients and an estimated 22,000 people seeking shelter, further straining resources.
- Food Insecurity and Medical Shortages: The entire Gaza Strip faces food insecurity, with imminent famine in the north. The hospital’s shortages include essential items like gauze and surgical supplies, complicating patient treatment.
- Casualty Figures: Gaza’s Health Ministry reports over 32,000 deaths and 74,000 injuries since the conflict’s escalation, with a significant portion being women and children. The counts do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
- Trigger of the Conflict: The war began with a surprise attack by Palestinian militants on October 7, resulting in 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians, and the abduction of 250 individuals, with Hamas still holding hostages.
- International Aid Response: Medical Aid for Palestinians, the International Rescue Committee, and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund organized the emergency medical team, highlighting the international effort to provide relief amidst the crisis.
The Associated Press has the story:
Aid groups describe an ‘unimaginable’ situation after visiting Gaza hospital
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — (AP)
Aid groups that visited a packed Gaza hospital described 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 southern city has seen heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants since the start of the year.
In a statement released Monday, the team said healthcare workers had been forced to evacuate or were unable to access the hospital. It said Israeli restrictions had 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.”
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.
More than 32,000 people have been killed in the territory, and more than 74,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its counts. It says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Some 1,200 people were killed on Oct. 7 when Palestinian militants launched a surprise attack out of Gaza, triggering the war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 Israelis hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.
The hospital has expanded to 1,000 beds from its original capacity of 200 to accommodate patients from Nasser Hospital, the main hospital in Khan Younis, which Israeli forces raided last month. There are also an estimated 22,000 people sheltering at the European Gaza Hospital.
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.”
In a statement released Monday, the team said healthcare workers had been forced to evacuate or were unable to access the hospital. It said Israeli restrictions had led to shortages of medical supplies, including basics like gauze and plates and screws used to stabilize broken bones.
Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian facilities to shield its fighters and has raided a number of medical facilities since the start of the war. Most of Gaza’s hospitals have been forced to shut down, even as scores are killed and wounded each day in Israeli strikes.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 32,000 Palestinians, and experts warn that even more are at risk of dying from disease and starvation.
The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 people.
The emergency medical team was organized by Medical Aid for Palestinians, the International Rescue Committee and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
‘REASONABLE GROUNDS’ TO BELIEVE ISRAEL IS COMMITTING GENOCIDE IN GAZA, INDEPENDENT U.N. EXPERT SAYS
GENEVA — An independent expert working with the U.N.’s top human rights body says there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel has been carrying out genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s government quickly rejected the report.
The report from Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, cited Israeli polices and the “patterns of violence” during Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.
It accused Israeli military forces and government leaders of having intentionally violated the laws of war and protections that they confer, “in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.”
“By analyzing the patterns of violence and Israel’s policies in its onslaught o Gaza, this report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met,” said the report, entitled “Anatomy of a Genocide.”
The report was drawn up under a mandate from the Human Rights Council., the U.N.’s top human rights body. It lays out some of the most methodical reasoning yet into claims of genocide against Palestinians that have been raised by critics of Israel and others.
The Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the council is based and is currently in session, said the report “brings shame” on the 47-country rights body and blasted Albanese for a “campaign of delegitimizing the very creation and existence of the State of Israel.”
“Since the war, she has continued this campaign unabated, excusing and legitimizing the attacks of Oct. 7, dismissing their antisemitic nature and dismissing any concrete evidence of acts of savagery that were perpetrated on that day,” the mission said.
“It is clear from the report that the Special Rapporteur began with the conclusion that Israel is committing genocide, and then tried to prove her distorted and politically-driven views with weak arguments and justifications,” it added.
U.N. human rights officials have been careful to say that only a competent court can make the final determination about genocide, and that is especially hard during ongoing conflict like the one in Gaza.
Albanese is an outside expert and does not speak for the United Nations.
Currently:
— Palestinians describe bodies and ambulances crushed in Israel’s ongoing raid at Gaza’s main hospital
— UN to vote on resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza during current Muslim holy month of Ramadan
— Thousands of Christians attend Palm Sunday celebrations in Jerusalem against a backdrop of war
— Israeli airstrike in northeastern Lebanon wounds 3, local official says
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
