‘Unbearable’ conditions at Gaza's Nasser Hospital, Health Ministry says

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Gaza’s Health Ministry has described dire conditions at the Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

“The situation at the hospital is unbearable and poses a real danger to the lives of medical staff and patients,” ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said medics are unable to provide medical attention to patients amid a lack of oxygen, water, and medical supplies.

“The occupation is still delaying the evacuation of 110 other patients who are still at the hospital,” he added.

The spokesman said tons of waste have piled up across the medical complex.

He appealed to international institutions to mount pressure on Israel “to halt militarizing the hospital and provide medical and humanitarian needs to patients and medical staff."

On Tuesday, an official from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the Nasser Hospital has become a “place of death.”

"The conditions are appalling. There are dead bodies in the corridors. Patients are in a desperate situation,” said Jonathan Whittall, senior humanitarian affairs officer at OCHA in the occupied Palestinian territory.

"This has become a place of death, not a place of healing," he added.

The Israeli army raided the medical facility last week after a weeks-long siege, forcing thousands of displaced Palestinians inside the hospital to flee under heavy Israeli bombardment.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in October, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.

The death toll from Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip has jumped to 29,313, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday. Another 69,333 people have been injured so far.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught, while all of them are food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and ⁠less than half of the aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.​​​​​​​

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara