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Gazans wounded by Israeli bombardment facing imminent risk of death: Health minister

Injured people receive medical care at the emergency ward of the Al-Shifa hospital following an Israeli strike, in Gaza City on November 5, 2023. (AFP photo)

Palestinian Minister of Health Mai Alkaila has said many civilians wounded by the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip are at imminent risk of death due to the severe shortage of medical supplies and fuel necessary to keep hospitals operating across the besieged enclave. 

In a statement released on Sunday, Alkaila said that the unending Israeli bombardment around and at hospitals in Gaza especially in the northern areas aims to force medical personnel to abandon their patients and leave the hospitals.

"This represents a complex massacre inflicted upon the wounded and patients, whereby Israel is trying to block their treatment inside Gaza's very hospitals and is obstructing their transfer to Egypt for treatment by targeting and bombing [medical] convoys," the statement read

She stated that Israeli attacks on the healthcare sector in Gaza have resulted in the deaths of over 150 medical personnel.  

Additionally, 27 ambulance vehicles have been destroyed, and 16 hospitals and 32 primary healthcare centers are no longer operational. 

Elsewhere in the statement, the minister appealed to the international community to urgently supply hospitals in Gaza with the fuel needed to save as many innocent lives as possible.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Ministry of Health has called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Egypt to ensure the safe exit of the wounded from the besieged enclave.

“We call on the ICRC to provide a safe passage for the wounded, accompany them and ensure their safe arrival to the Rafah land crossing until they are discharged to hospitals in Egypt,” the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qudra, said.

He added that another option could be for Egypt to let Egyptian ambulances enter the Gaza Strip and transport the wounded “to ensure their safe exit”.

This comes as Israel pushes ahead with its attacks on refugee camps, medical centers and schools in Gaza, raising the death toll of one month of war to nearly 9,800.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli airstrikes claim more lives as the regime continues targeting civilian infrastructure, schools and medical facilities.

In its latest strikes, Israel hit the Bureij refugee camp, making it the third refugee camp in the strip targeted in the last 24 hours.

Casualties have also been reported after surrounding areas of the al-Quds Hospital were bombed.

Earlier on Sunday, over 50 Palestinians were killed in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.

"All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn-apart flesh," said Saeed al-Nejma, 53, adding that he had been asleep with his family when the Israeli strike hit his neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded an immediate Israeli ceasefire at a meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

"There are no words to describe the war of genocide and destruction to which our Palestinian people are being subjected in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli war machine, without regard to the rules of international law," Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as saying.

Palestine condemns Israeli minister’s nuclear bomb comments

Palestine’s Foreign Ministry has condemned an Israeli minister’s comments where he called for dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza.

“These remarks are a translation of the genocidal war that Israel has been waging against the Gaza Strip for 30 days,” the ministry said in a statement.

Eyewitnesses say Israeli warplanes have once again used internationally banned white phosphorus bombs on civilians.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program has appealed for more aid for the besieged strip, stressing that trucks allowed in so far are no match for needs on the ground.

This comes as the Israeli forces, for the 30th day in a row, are waging a devastating war on Gaza, in which at least 9,770 Palestinians were killed, including 4,800 children and 2,509 women, and more than 24,000 others were injured. 

The Israeli regime is enjoying the unconditional support of the US and its allies in Europe in its ongoing aggression on Gaza.


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