The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said that the Israeli occupation deliberately deprived the Strip’s hospitals of their medical content, and made them ineligible to perform their vital functions in saving the sick and wounded.

Al-Qudra added in statements to Al-Jazeera Net that the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip issued a distress call yesterday, Sunday, to all medical teams that were able to reach the hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, and they joined them on Monday morning, “but we also demand more support for the hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, especially with regard to medicines” and medical consumables and providing a suitable atmosphere for hospitals to carry out their functions in light of the ongoing aggression and repeated threats after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the northern Gaza Strip.”

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza indicated that the Israeli occupation “deliberately struck the hospital infrastructure and displaced the population from the north to the south, including medical personnel, killed and injured a large number of medical personnel, destroyed more than 60 ambulances, and targeted 160 health institutions” 28 hospitals went out of service, and 63 primary care centers also went out of service.

Regarding the situation of the medical sector in light of the fourth day of the truce agreement, Al-Qudra said, “We in the Gaza Strip were subjected to a direct targeting operation by the Israeli occupation, and it began to strangle the health system on the first day of the aggression by cutting off medical supplies, fuel, and electricity.”

He added that the medical reality - unfortunately - within the Gaza region and the north in particular is very difficult, and Israeli threats continue. 

Regarding the volume of medical aid that entered the Gaza Strip following the truce agreement, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra said, “The medical aid that entered was less than hoped for, and unfortunately it was also not directed to hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, and this keeps the health system collapsed.”

Supporting the health system

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza made a call for “the health system in the Strip to be supported with medicines, medical consumables, and fuel,” and for the arrival of “field hospitals with large capacities that can respond to the large number of wounded and sick cases,” and to compensate for the large number of hospitals that are no longer in service as a result of the Israeli bombing.

He also called for the necessity of “many of the wounded being taken out for treatment outside the Gaza Strip, as if they remain inside the Gaza Strip, we lose dozens of cases every day due to the lack of appropriate treatment.”