Gaza Health Ministry: ‘Israel preventing UN delegation from evacuating sick children from Northern Gaza’

A Health Ministry official in Gaza announced on Friday that the occupation prevented a World Health Organisation (WHO) delegation from evacuating sick children from hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, given the catastrophic situation in the area due to the ongoing military operation for the sixth consecutive day.

Maher Shamiya, assistant secretary of the Ministry of Health, explained to Anadolu Agency: “The army turned away the WHO delegation tasked with evacuating intensive care patients and children from hospitals in the north and did not allow it to reach the northern Gaza Strip.”

Anadolu Agency’s correspondent was unable to obtain a comment from WHO regarding Israel’s actions against it.

Shamiya explained: “The three hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip (Al-Awda, Indonesian and Kamal Adwan) currently contain 124 patients, 13 of whom are receiving intensive care, including eight children.”

He added: “Kamal Adwan Hospital includes the largest intensive care unit for children in the Gaza and northern governorates, and it is threatened with closure due to Israeli attacks and a lack of fuel.”

Shamiya highlighted that: “The Israeli army has prevented fuel trucks from entering hospitals in Gaza and the north for the fifth consecutive time since the start of the military operation last Sunday. Hospitals are facing a major crisis due to the imminent depletion of the fuel needed to operate generators, which threatens the continuity of the work of operating rooms and intensive care.”

He pointed out: “Jabalia camp is completely besieged, and it is almost impossible to move in its streets, as the army is shooting at everything that moves, and there is difficulty in retrieving the martyrs and treating the wounded,” stressing the need for international and UN bodies to intervene to lift the siege and allow fuel and medical supplies to reach hospitals in the north.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the Israeli army warned the Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals to evacuate their medical staff and patients and that it threatened them with “killing, destruction and arrest” similar to what happened at Al-Shifa Hospital several months ago.

This comes after the Israeli army announced the start of a military operation in Jabalia on Sunday under the pretext of “preventing Hamas from regaining its strength in the area,” hours after the start of a fierce attack on the eastern and western areas of the northern Gaza Strip, the most violent since last May.

The Israeli army warned Palestinians to evacuate their homes in Jabalia and the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia and head south. However, the Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza warned citizens against responding to this, considering it “deception and lies”.

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