The health authorities in Gaza announced, in their latest update, that the number of people injured in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli aggression has risen to about 89,364 since the seventh of last October.

The Government Information Office in the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday that the number of dead affected by their wounds and who were prevented by the Israeli occupation from traveling to receive treatment abroad due to the occupation’s closure of the Rafah border crossing 72 days ago; rose to 292 dead.

The Israeli army took control of the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side on May 7.

The health crisis resulting from the closure of the crossing

The government media office in Gaza added: “Since the occupation closed the Rafah crossing, more than 3,500 sick and wounded people have been prevented from traveling to receive treatment in hospitals outside the Gaza Strip, noting that there are 25,000 referral requests registered with the Ministry of Health under the heading of travel to receive treatment abroad. However, The occupation’s closure of the Rafah crossing prevents these people from traveling for treatment, which poses a death threat to their lives and threatens their survival.”

The World Health Organization estimated the number of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who need to travel abroad to receive treatment at at least 10,000 people, according to statements by the UN spokesman, Tariq Yasarevic, during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Targeting the health system in Gaza

The Government Information Office in Gaza said: “The health system is suffering its worst stages in light of the occupation’s plan and its premeditated intention to overthrow the entire health system and put all hospitals in the Gaza Strip out of service by occupying, targeting and destroying them or burning and blowing them up completely, as happened with the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and the Gaza Medical Complex. Nasser Medical Center, Al-Rantisi Hospital, Al-Nasr Hospital, Al-Ayoun Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, Al-Awda Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, the European Hospital, and other hospitals that the occupation forced to exit the health service and forced their medical teams to leave. The occupation also killed 500 of them medical staff and has so far arrested 310 medical staff in its prisons.” .

The office condemned “the occupation taking the Rafah crossing out of service and depriving more than 25,000 wounded and sick people from traveling to receive treatment abroad,” and called on all international and human rights institutions to condemn “this heinous crime that threatens the lives of the sick and wounded.”

The office also held the Israeli occupation and the American administration fully responsible for the continued closure of the crossings and for contributing to the worsening of the humanitarian and health situation in the Gaza Strip, especially depriving the wounded and sick of receiving treatment in hospitals abroad.

It called on the international community, the United Nations, various international organizations, and all countries of the free world to put pressure on the Israeli occupation and the American administration to open the crossings immediately and urgently “before a new humanitarian catastrophe occurs on top of the already disastrous and crisis situation in the Gaza Strip.”

The death toll from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has risen to 38,794 martyrs and 89,364 injured since October 7th.