UN humanitarian office helps to evacuate patients, civilians from hospital in Gaza

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - The UN announced Wednesday that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) helped evacuate civilians from the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

"OCHA staff helped evacuate civilians on Monday from Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, amid intense military operations" in that city, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference.

Following an Israeli raid Sunday at the hospital as part of its ongoing offensive against Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society demanded providing safe humanitarian passage for medics and patients at the hospital.

OCHA, along with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the International Committee of the Red Cross, "evacuated six patients and a companion, more than two dozen staff, and the bodies of two people killed inside the hospital," said Dujarric.

Noting that "as of yesterday, Al-Amal hospital had ceased functioning," Dujarric stated that, as per the World Health Organization (WHO), the majority of Gaza's 36 hospitals are out of operation.

"Two are minimally functional, and 10 are partially functional – four in the north and six in the south," he said.

Highlighting that Andrea De Domenico, head of OCHA, visited the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, one of the four partially functional hospitals, Dujarric said according to De Domenico, "the hospital is receiving about 15 malnourished children a day and is struggling to maintain services."

"The hospital’s only generator has been heavily damaged, and health workers and patients desperately need food, water and sanitation assistance," added Dujarric.

- 70% of population in northern Gaza facing catastrophic hunger

The OCHA head further stressed that "saving children’s lives will require the unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid."

Regarding food in Gaza, Dujarric said "roughly 70% of the population in northern Gaza is facing catastrophic hunger" as per the World Food Program (WFP).

"However, efforts to deliver life-saving assistance to the north have been impeded by access constraints and the ongoing fighting," he said, adding that the WFP "was only able to send 11 convoys to the north – bringing food for some 74,000 people."

Asked about the reason for issues related to food distribution, Dujarric said, "Not enough food is getting in and I think we've talked about the many challenges to food distribution. And those have not changed."

He named challenges: "Lack of security, the lack of cooperation with the Israeli authorities, the lack of an insufficient number of trucks, not enough fuel."

Asked about the implementation of a recent UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, Dujarric said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as other UN officials and representatives, continue to call for its implementation.

"But it is obviously those who are doing the fighting and those who have an influence over those who are deciding to push for the implementation of the resolution," he said.

The Security Council passed a resolution Monday demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. While Hamas welcomed the move, Israel rejected the demand and vowed to continue its offensive in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 in which less than 1,200 Israelis were killed.

More than 32,200 Palestinians have since been killed and over 74,500 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli onslaught has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.