to report «iusnews»; The World Health Organization labelled Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital a “death zone” and urged the evacuation of the remaining people at the facility.
A WHO-led humanitarian assessment team visited the hospital after the evacuation of most people at the facility on Saturday, Al-Jazeera reported.
The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and was told more than 80 people were buried there, the health agency said in a statement on Sunday.
The team, which included public health experts, logistics officers and security staff from various United Nations departments, also saw visible signs of shelling and gunfire.
“Due to time limits associated with the security situation, the team was able to spend only one hour inside the hospital, which they described as a ‘death zone’ and the situation as ‘desperate,’ the WHO said.
The WHO said a lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid had led the facility to “essentially stop functioning as a medical facility”.
“The team observed that due to the security situation, it has been impossible for the staff to carry out effective waste management in the hospital. Corridors and the hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, increasing the risk of infection,” the statement said.
“Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation. Al-Shifa Hospital can no longer admit patients, with the injured and sick now being directed to the seriously overwhelmed and barely functioning Indonesian Hospital.”
The WHO also said there are still 25 health workers and 291 patients, including 32 babies, at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, following the evacuation of the facility.
“Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, two people in intensive care without ventilation, and 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment has been severely compromised,” the health agency said in a statement.
“The vast majority of patients are victims of war trauma, including many with complex fractures and amputations, head injuries, burns, chest and abdominal trauma, and 29 patients with serious spinal injuries who are unable to move without medical assistance. Many trauma patients have severely infected wounds due to lack of infection control measures in the hospital and unavailability of antibiotics,” it added.
The WHO team said several patient deaths had occurred over the previous two to three days due to the shutting down of medical services.
The health agency said efforts were being made to urgently transport remaining patients to the Nasser Medical Complex and the European Gaza Hospital in the South of Gaza but “these hospitals are already working beyond capacity, and new referrals from Al-Shifa Hospital will further strain overburdened health staff and resources”.
Most staff, patients and displaced people at Al-Shifa left the facility on Saturday, with hospital staff reporting that they were ordered to evacuate by Israel’s military.
Israeli officials have denied forcing people to leave the hospital.
The Al-Shifa Hospital Director, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, earlier told Al-Jazeera that many people left on foot but “patients who cannot move, amputees, and those with critical conditions” were forced to remain behind with a handful of medical staff.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory's resistance movements waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to its decades-long campaign of bloodshed and devastation against Palestinians.
Since the attack, Israel has bombarded the Palestinian territory, launched a ground offensive and severely restricted supplies of water, food and electricity.
The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached 12,300 people, according to a statement released by the government's media office in Gaza. The dead include more than 5,000 children and 3,300 women. In addition, 30,000 people have been injured.
The Palestinian health ministry, meanwhile, has said that dozens of bodies currently litter the streets of the Northern Gaza Strip and that it is impossible to count them because the Israeli army has been targeting ambulances and medical workers trying to approach them.
