Six children died from dehydration and malnutrition in the northern Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian crisis left by the war with Israel is even deeper than in other latitudes of the enclave, while Two hospitals in the area stopped working this Wednesday, February 28, 2024, due to lack of power.
“Two children died as a result of dehydration and malnutrition” in the Al Shifa Medical Complex, located in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, reported the Ministry of Health of the Strip, controlled by the political wing of the Islamist group Hamas.
Shortly before, the Kamal Adwana hospital, also located in the north of the Strip, announced that “four children died” in their facilities in the last 24 hours due to malnutrition and dehydration.
In addition, in that hospital, seven other children “are in serious danger” of death for the same reasons, assured the Ministry of Health, which called on international institutions “to take immediate measures to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the north of the Strip.”
The Kamal Adwana hospital, which was besieged and attacked last December by the Israeli Army, announced this Wednesday that it will be “out of service starting today due to lack of fuel.”
“Surgical operations in the hospital have completely stopped“he explained, requesting “an urgent intervention to provide fuel” and allow the resumption of services.
For its part, the Al Awda hospital, located in the city of Jabalia, also in the north of the Strip, announced the total suspension of its services due to the serious shortage of fuel and medical supplies, the official Palestinian news agency reported. Wafa.
These hospitals join a long list of medical centers in the Strip that can no longer cope with the colossal number of wounded and sick that the war has left behind, either due to the destruction of their facilities, or the loss of electricity or drinking water. , or the lack of supplies, personnel and food.
Arguing that the Islamist group Hamas uses civilian infrastructure to carry out its war operations, the Army has attacked numerous hospitals, including Al Shifa, the most important in the entire Strip and which can now only provide emergency services.
Israeli forces stormed Al Shifa shortly after beginning their ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave last year, despite the fact that thousands of wounded, sick, displaced and medical personnel were inside.
In that military operation, troops found Hamas tunnels near and beneath the medical center.
Imminent famine
The cessation of operations of Kamal Adwan hospital “aggravates the health and humanitarian situation of our people in the north of the Gaza Strip, which caused the martyrdom of many patients due to lack of medical care and medicines“said Hamas, which de facto governs the Gaza Strip, in a statement.
Furthermore, “the martyrdom of children by malnutrition and dehydration is an international failure to protect humanity from the criminality of the Zionist entity,” he added, accusing Israel of committing a “crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinians. .
According to the Islamic group, some 700,000 Gazans – out of a total population of more than two million people – are in the north of the Strip, where the humanitarian crisis is even more serious than in the rest of the enclave, due to difficult access for the transportation of supplies and the continuous fighting.
A source in Gaza told EFE that this Wednesday, for the first time since the war broke out on October 7, 2023, a plane – apparently Jordanian – airdropped packages with humanitarian aid near the Indonesian hospital, in Jabalia.
Representatives of several UN humanitarian agencies warned the Security Council that famine is virtually inevitable in Gaza.
In 145 days of war, Israel’s air, land and sea offensive has left 29,954 dead in the Gaza Strip, 70,325 injured and nearly 8,000 missing under the rubble and other inaccessible places.
The dead include more than 346 medical personnel and a total of 155 health institutions have been partially or completely destroyed, leading to the closure of 32 hospitals and 53 health care centers in Gaza, while 126 ambulances stopped operating. function.
Meanwhile, the occupancy rate of the few hospitals that continue to operate below minimum levels is 275%while that of intensive care beds is 217%.
The war broke out after a Hamas attack against Israel that left some 1,200 dead and 250 kidnapped, of which more than a hundred have been released.
Source: https://www.noticiascaracol.com/mundo/sigue-el-horror-en-gaza-6-ninos-murieron-por-causas-asociadas-a-desnutricion-y-deshidratacion-rg10
