GAZA,(Palestine Foundation Information Center)Médecins sans frontiers (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders reiterated its call on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip to prevent more deaths and allow the entry of desperately needed humanitarian supplies.
MSF said in a statement: “Northern Gaza is being razed to the ground, but the entire Strip is also being bombed. There is no safe place in Gaza for civilians to take shelter.”
“The UN General Assembly resolution calling for a humanitarian truce has done nothing so far to rein in the widespread and indiscriminate violence against civilians in Gaza. The international community must take stronger action to stop the bloodshed,” it added.
“People are being killed and forcibly displaced from their homes, and water and fuel are running dangerously low. Atrocities are being committed on a scale never before seen in Gaza,” MSF added.
Hospitals are running out of medical supplies. Earlier this week, Dr. Mohammed Obeid, an MSF surgeon in Gaza, described the situation as following: “Hospitals are flooded with patients. Amputations and surgeries are being carried out without proper anesthesia. And morgues are flooded with dead bodies.”
The medical organization also underlined that the communication blackout has limited the ability of doctors to coordinate their work and help large numbers of patients who were seeking medical treatment. The fuel cut off also left thousands of the trapped people under the rubble as well as pregnant women and the elderly unable to seek desperately needed help. MSF lost contact with most of its workers due to the communication blackout.
“Across Gaza, the number of injured people in need of urgent medical assistance far exceeds the capacity of the health system, which currently has around 3,500 beds. According to the local Ministry of Health, more than 7,760 people have been killed and 21,400 people have been injured in Gaza since October 7. So many victims in such a short time are unheard of, even compared with previous large-scale Israeli offensives,” MSF said.
“Health facilities such as Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where some MSF staff continue to work, are overwhelmed with patients. Israeli military orders to evacuate hospitals across northern Gaza are dangerous and inhumane,” it added.
The medical humanitarian organization stated that “As of Friday night, Al Shifa Hospital was at full capacity with patients seeking medical treatment, and tens of thousands of others seeking safe shelter. Under international humanitarian law, patients, health workers, and health facilities must be protected at all times.”
For his part, MSF International President Dr. Christos Christou said: “Helpless people are being subjected to horrific bombing. Families have nowhere to run or to hide, as hell is unleashed on them. Water, food, fuel, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid in Gaza need to be urgently restored. We need a ceasefire now.”
Christou underlined that “the entire population of Gaza, more than 2.2 million people, are suffering under the Israeli siege. This is collective punishment, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
He affirmed that Israeli authorities continue to prevent the entry of fuel into Gaza, which is essential for powering hospitals as well as the desalination plants that produce clean drinking water.
“Prior to October 7, between 300 to 500 supply trucks crossed into Gaza every day, where most people were already dependent on humanitarian aid due to a years-long blockade. Since the Rafah border crossing reopened on October 21, only 84 aid trucks have entered Gaza, according to the UN humanitarian agency. This is a vastly inadequate response to the constant and growing needs in Gaza,” he explained.
“We are ready to increase our aid capacity in Gaza. We have teams on standby ready to send medical supplies and to enter Gaza to support the emergency medical response, as soon as the situation allows it. But as long as the bombing continues with the current intensity, any effort to increase medical aid will inevitably fall short,” Dr. Christou concluded.
