GENEVA: Some 9,000 patients in the Gaza Strip require evacuation for emergency care, with the war-torn Palestinian territory down to just 10 barely functioning hospitals, the head of the WHO said Saturday.
“With only 10 hospitals minimally functional across the whole of #Gaza, thousands of patients continue to be deprived of health care,” World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
Before the war, Gaza had 36 hospitals, according to the WHO.
“Around 9,000 patients urgently need to be evacuated abroad for lifesaving health services, including treatment for cancer, injuries from bombardments, kidney dialysis and other chronic conditions,” he said.
That is up from 8,000 in the WHO’s previous assessment at the beginning of March.
Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas after the Islamist group’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, and has been bombing Gaza without respite, damaging many health care facilities.
Violent ground combat has also been underway for weeks, sometimes around Gaza’s hospitals, which are also providing refuge for thousands who have lost their homes or fled the fighting.
Gaza is subject to an almost complete blockade, and NGOs and the United Nations accuse Israel of preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid needed by the 2.4 million inhabitants who are mostly massed in Rafah at the territory’s southern tip.
Israel has defended its policies as it pursues its stated goal of destroying Hamas, saying the UN should send more aid to Gaza, pushing back on reports by the UN and NGOs that cumbersome Israeli inspections are blocking food and other essentials.
The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants also seized about 250 hostages. Israel believes around 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,705 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Tedros said that “so far, over 3,400 patients have been referred abroad through Rafah, including 2,198 wounded and 1,215 ill. But many more need to be evacuated.
“We urge Israel to speed up approvals for evacuations, so that critical patients can be treated. Every moment matters.”
Before the war, 50 to 100 patients a day were transferred to East Jerusalem or the West Bank, half of them for cancer treatment.
WHO says 9,000 patients need emergency evacuation from Gaza
https://arab.news/99tq4
WHO says 9,000 patients need emergency evacuation from Gaza
- Before the war, Gaza had 36 hospitals, according to the WHO
- That is up from 8,000 in the WHO’s previous assessment at the beginning of March
Sudan PM heads to New York for UN talks
- Sudan’s army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said last week he was ready to work with Trump to resolve the conflict
PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris left for New York on Saturday to meet the UN chief and other officials and discuss humanitarian access and a possible ceasefire, two government sources said.
The trip comes as fighting between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces, which erupted in April 2023, intensifies in southern Kordofan, raising fears of new atrocities similar to those reported in the city of El-Fasher in late October.
Reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions followed the RSF’s capture of the army’s last stronghold in the western
Darfur region.
A Sudanese government source said Idris was expected to meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to “put an end to the worsening humanitarian crisis” in Sudan.
Idris’ adviser, Mohammed Abdel Qader, also said the talks would focus on “facilitating aid access” and reaffirm the government’s commitment to a roadmap handed over to the UN, including a “conditional ceasefire linked to the withdrawal of the RSF from areas and cities it occupies.”
Earlier this month, Guterres said the United Nations was preparing talks with both sides in Geneva, but did not specify a date.
Renewed hopes for diplomacy emerged last month when US President Donald Trump pledged to help end the conflict.
Sudan’s army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said last week he was ready to work with Trump to resolve the conflict.
The RSF says it supports the international ceasefire plan, but heavy fighting continues, notably in Kordofan.
Egypt, a key ally of Sudan’s army, warned on Thursday that escalating violence “directly affects Egyptian national security” and stressed that preserving Sudanese state institutions remains a “red line.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the new year offered a chance for a humanitarian truce in Sudan and urged external countries to use leverage.
“Ninety-nine percent of our focus is this humanitarian truce and achieving that as soon as possible,” Rubio told a news conference.
“And we think that the new year and the upcoming holidays are a great opportunity for both sides to agree to that, and we’re really pushing very hard in that regard,” he said.
Rubio voiced alarm at new reports that humanitarian convoys have been struck.
“What’s happening there is horrifying. It’s atrocious,” he said.
“One day, the story of what’s actually happened there is going to be known, and everyone involved is going to look bad,” he added.
“We’re hopeful that we can make some progress on this, but we know that in order to make progress on this, it will require outside actors to use their leverage,” Rubio said.
