Israel’s Intensified Attacks On Gaza Are Worsening An Already Dire Health Crisis
HuffPost
The pummeling of the besieged territory's northern region has made it impossible for aid workers to help the displaced with medical treatment and nutrition.
Aid workers are sounding the alarm this week on the worsening humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have trapped Palestinians while intensifying attacks both on civilians and life-sustaining infrastructure.
The Israeli military has been killing scores of people in a nearly weeklong siege across northern Gaza, with a particular focus on the Jabalia refugee camp. In addition to the airstrikes and shelling, Israeli forces are also applying the lethal strategy of destroying northern Gaza’s health system while blocking access to humanitarian aid ― a deadly strategy by the military that has been extensively reported on by HuffPost.
“The situation in Gaza is beyond horrific. It is not safe, neither for civilians nor for the humanitarians and aid workers,” Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said overnight on Wednesday to Indian network WIONews. “We need the international community to take serious measures.”
There are still at least 400,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza, which the Israeli military has isolated from the rest of the territory as it pummels the region. The PRCS released a video on Thursday showing staff instructing a woman over the phone on how to administer first aid, since medics could not enter a closed military zone. Israeli forces attacked the woman’s home in Jabalia, killing two and injuring 11, including five children, the humanitarian organization said.
The Israeli military also forced Indonesian, Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals to evacuate despite the hundreds of patients in their care, around 80 of whom were unable to move in intensive care, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The hospitals are some of the few remaining facilities open in Gaza and simultaneously serve as shelters for many displaced Palestinians, including medical staff.
