The various agencies charged with caring for the starving, the injured, the helpless have been crying out for weeks in Gaza, to little or no avail. Now, with Israel’s ground and air assaults on Gaza’s hospitals, the chorus of cries are constant, unremitting and sounding more like desperate shrieks. Here’s a rundown from the last 24 hours:
The UN children’s organization UNICEF said yesterday that the lives of the 1 million children in Gaza are currently “hanging by a thread.… Over the past 24-hours, medical care at Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr children’s hospitals has reportedly almost ceased, with only a small generator powering the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units.”
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) announced yesterday that Gaza’s healthcare system is: “Overstretched, running on thin supplies and increasingly unsafe, the healthcare system in Gaza has reached a point of no return risking the lives of thousands of wounded, sick and displaced people.” Recent “attacks on medical facilities and personnel” have dealt a “heavy blow” to the healthcare system in Gaza, “which is severely weakened after more than one month of heavy fighting.”
Within hours, the ICRC director general Robert Mardini added, in a tweet, that they are “shocked and appalled by the images and reports coming from Al Shifa hospital in Gaza.… The unbearably desperate situation for patients & staff trapped inside must stop. Now.” World Health Organization director Dr. Tedros said WHO is “extremely disturbed” about reports of Israeli attacks nearby
