As the UN's agency responsible for public health, WHO voiced its condemnation of israel's repeated directives to evacuate 22 hospitals that are currently treating over 2,000 inpatients in the embattled northern region. This forced evacuation, the organization warned, will only exacerbate the already dire humanitarian and public health catastrophe unfolding in the area.
The lives of countless critically ill and fragile patients now hang in the balance. These include those in intensive care, individuals reliant on life support, patients undergoing hemodialysis, newborns in incubators, and women experiencing pregnancy complications.
All face the imminent deterioration of their health or even death if they are forcibly moved and cut off from the life-saving medical attention they urgently require during evacuation.
Health facilities in northern Gaza are grappling with a relentless influx of injured patients and are strained beyond their maximum capacity. With a lack of available hospital beds, some patients are being treated in corridors and even outdoors on the surrounding streets.
Relocating over 2,000 patients to southern Gaza, where health facilities are already overwhelmed and incapable of absorbing a sudden surge in patient numbers, is described as potentially equivalent to a "death sentence."
Amidst the ongoing Israeli bombing campaign, hospital directors and health workers face heart-wrenching decisions: whether to abandon critically ill patients, risking their own lives to stay and treat patients, or jeopardizing patients' lives during transport to facilities already unable to accommodate them.
The vast majority of caregivers have opted to remain behind, upholding their professional oaths as health providers to "do no harm" rather than facing the impossible choices posed by evacuations.
Moreover, tens of thousands of displaced people in northern Gaza have sought refuge in open spaces near hospitals, considering them havens from violence and safeguarding the facilities from potential attacks. However, their lives are also at risk when health facilities become targets of bombings.
Disturbing reports have emerged, verifying the deaths of healthcare workers and the destruction of health facilities. Such actions not only infringe upon civilians' basic human right to life-saving healthcare but also contravene International Humanitarian Law.
WHO has called for an immediate reversal of Israel's evacuation orders for hospitals in northern Gaza and has urgently appealed for the protection of health facilities, healthcare workers, patients, and civilians.
The organization has reiterated its calls for the prompt and secure delivery of vital medical supplies, fuel, clean water, food, and other humanitarian aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Currently, life-saving assistance, including WHO health supplies, is awaiting entry. (ILKHA)