Gaza Health System “stretched beyond Breaking Point”, which warns

Intestified Israeli land operations and the new evacuation orders stretch the Gaza health system beyond Breaking Point, warned the head of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Indonesian hospitals, Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda in the cities in the north of Beit Lahia and Jabalia were in an evacuation area announced on Tuesday. Two other hospitals are within 1 km (0.6 thousand).

Kamal Adwan was out of service due to the nearby hostilities and the Indonesian hospital was inaccessible due to the presence of Israeli forces around, he added.

Al-Awda hospital is still working, but its director told the BBC on Wednesday that it was “completely besieged”.

“No one can move and we can receive any cases from outside the hospital,” said Dr. Mohammed Salha.

He added that there was a quadcopter drone “pulling around the hospital and the hospital outdoor area”.

“We also hear tanks … maybe 400 or 500 meters (far).”

The Israeli Defense Forces (FDI) told the BBC that it “operated in the region against terrorist targets”, but that it was “not aware of any seat of the hospital itself”.

Dr. Tedros said: “Even if health establishments are not attacked or obliged to evacuate, hostilities and military presence obstruct patients and access to care access, and which to replenish hospitals, which can quickly make them non -functional.”

“We have seen it too often – it should not be allowed to reproduce.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also said that at least 20 medical facilities across Gaza had been damaged, or partially or completely forced, during last week by Israeli land operations, air strikes and evacuation orders.

The charitable organization demanded that the Israeli authorities stop what it called “the deliberate asphyxiation of Gaza and the annihilation of its health system”.

Israel imposed a total blockade in Gaza on March 2 and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, ending a cease-fire of two months. He said he wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release his 58 remaining hostages, of which up to 23 which would be alive.

After several days of intense bombing, the FDIs launched an offensive extended on Sunday which, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would see land forces “taking control of all regions” of Gaza. The plan would completely include cleaning northern civilians and move them with force to the south.

More than 600 people were killed and 2,000 injured in Gaza during last week, according to the Hamas Ministry of Hamas in the territory. The UN says that tens of thousands of people have been newly moved.

Netanyahu also said that Israel would authorize a “basic” quantity of food in Gaza to prevent famine. But the UN has so far not been able to collect dozens of truck charges authorized since Monday.

MSF said that the volume of assistance authorized so far was not enough, describing it as “a smoke screen to claim that the seat is finished”.

On Tuesday, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories said that he recently returned from Gaza and had witnessed the way the health system faced attacks and acute shortages of supplies.

“Whenever you enter Gaza, you still think it cannot get worse. But it gets worse,” Dr. Rik Peeperkorn told the journalist in Geneva.

He described how the Al-Awda hospital was “overwhelmed by injuries” and was low on supplies. Hostilities had damaged the establishment, disrupted access and dissuaded people from looking for health care, he added.

He said that the Indonesian hospital worked hardly, almost inaccessible, and that most of the patients had left last week after the death of a staff member, a patient was injured and that the installation was damaged during intensified hostilities.

Only 15 people, including patients and staff, were still inside the hospital on Tuesday, needing food and water emergency, he added.

The hospital generator was also struck by an Israeli quadcopter on Monday evening, causing a large fire and a power failure, according to Mer-C Indonesia, the NGO which built the installation.

On Wednesday, a woman inside the hospital told the BBC by phone that two of the patients were in “serious condition”.

In the background of the call, accidents could be heard.

“Five minutes ago, there were intense shots around the hospital,” she said, adding that she could see tanks.

The woman also said that they still had food supplies inside the hospital, but “faced a water crisis”.

The FDI told the BBC that it operated in the area around the hospital and targeting “terrorist infrastructure sites”, but that it did not aim for the hospital itself.

In another incident on Tuesday, a paramedical paramedic said that his ambulance had been shot by an Israeli drone while transporting staff and food between Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals.

Khaled Sadeh said he was with another ambulance when bullets hit the windshields from the two vehicles. No one was injured.

Dr. Salha shared photos of the ambulances and confirmed that Mr. Sadeh was unable to return to Al-Awda due to the threat of Israeli fires.

The BBC provided details on allegations and photos to the FDI, but he said that he “could not confirm” reports.

Hospitals and medical staff are specially protected by international humanitarian law.

Hospitals only lose this protection in certain circumstances. They understand being used as a base from which to launch an attack, as arms depot, or to hide healthy fighters.

The FDI insisted that its forces work in accordance with international law. In most cases he attacked hospitals, he said they were poorly used by Hamas – an allegation that the group denied.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, the European hospital – the only establishment providing neurosurgery, heart care and cancer treatment in Gaza – has been out of service since May 13.

That day, the courtyard and the surroundings of the hospital was affected by a series of Israeli air strikes that the Israeli Defense Minister said targeting an underground bunker where Hamas military wing hid, Mohammed Sinwar. The Civil Defense Agency led by Gaza said that the attack had killed at least 28 people, but it is not yet clear if Sinwar has died.

The installation is also located inside an Israeli designated evacuation zone covering almost the entire half east of Khan Younis since Monday.

Dr. Tedros said that Nasser, Al-Amal and Al-Aqsa hospitals, as well as a hospital in the field, were less than 1 km from the area.

Dr Victoria Rose, a British surgeon working at Nasser hospital, said in a video published on social networks on Wednesday that it was very worried about the evacuation or the cut of the installation by an Israeli troops advances from Al-Aqsa, which in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

“If we are cut off from the region in the middle, there are really no other hospitals around us who could face the evacuation of Nasser,” she said.

“We have incredible field hospitals … but none of them is able to make the type of surgery that we do here. And none of them has a usage capacity or generated oxygen. So, even all together could face the amount of patients we have.”

She warned: “If Nasser is evacuated, we are really looking at the imminent death of hundreds of patients because we will not be able to take them anywhere.”

Nasser was also struck by an Israeli strike on May 13, killing two people, including a Palestinian journalist who was treated for injuries he suffered during a previous strike on a tent camp at the complex. The attack also destroyed 18 beds in a Burns unit, according to WHO.

The FDI accused the journalist of being a Hamas agent and alleged that the hospital was used by the group to “make terrorist plots”.

Another strike on Monday seriously damaged Nasser’s medical warehouse and destroyed Critical Who Supplies, according to the director of the hospital.

Suha Shaath, a pharmacist from Khan Younis who was informed by TSAhal to evacuate and go to the camps of the Al-Mawasi coastal region, told the BBC in a voice note: “I have not left my house so far because I have not found any place to install my tent.”

“The humanitarian situation is very serious-no water, no food, no fuel. The bombings strike everywhere,” she added.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the cross -border attack in Hamas on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 53,655 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,509 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the Ministry of Health of the Territory.