Health Ministry in Gaza : Nasser Hospital being out of service means death sentence for hundreds of thousands
GAZA, Feb. 18 (YPA) – The Israeli occupation forces have transformed the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, the “second largest” hospital in the Gaza Strip, into a military barracks and taken it out of service, according to the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Strip, Ashraf Al-Qudra.
Al-Qudra announced that seven patients have died so far in the hospital due to the cessation of oxygen three days ago, pointing out that there is a fear of the martyrdom of dozens of serious cases.
The Israeli occupation forces arrested the intensive care doctor, and there is no doctor to follow up on critical cases. They also arrested 70 other health personnel in the hospital.
Al-Qudra stated that there are only 25 medical staff members left in the Nasser Medical Complex, and it is unable to deal with cases that require extreme clinical care.
The Israeli occupation forces placed medical personnel for long hours in the maternity building while they were handcuffed, beat them, and stripped of their clothes. They also arrested dozens of patients who could not move while they were on treatment beds, placed them on Israeli army beds, placed them in trucks, and took them to an unknown destination, putting their lives in danger.
Al-Qudra pointed out that there were three women, including a doctor, who gave birth in Nasser Complex under compelling and unsafe conditions, lacking water, food, electricity, and hygiene.
He said that sewage water is flooding the emergency departments in the Al-Taraha building in the Nasser Medical Complex, and the Israeli occupation has refused to coordinate to repair it for several days.
Al-Qudra held the Israeli occupation forces fully responsible for the lives of the medical staff and patients in the Nasser Medical Complex. He continued, “Nasser Hospital being out of service is a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced people in the Khan Yunis and Rafah areas, because the Nasser Medical Complex is considered the backbone of health services in southern Gaza.”
The World Health Organization announced on Sunday that Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, was no longer operating after a siege that lasted more than a week, followed by continuous raids.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a statement published on the “X” platform that Israel did not allow the organization team to enter the hospital to assess the patients’ conditions and critical medical needs, even though it arrived at the hospital to deliver fuel.
He pointed out that about 200 patients are still in the hospital, and at least 20 people need urgent transfers to other hospitals to receive health care, stressing that treatment is the right of every patient, and called for facilitating access to patients and hospitals.
YPA