Scared doctors and patients are fleeing a hospital in Rafah, while transfers of sick and injured people through a border crossing in Egypt are halted due to Israel's military operation, doctors and residents said on Tuesday (7).
The Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital is in an area of southern Gaza that the Israeli army has designated a combat zone in the conflict where Israeli strikes have repeatedly targeted hospitals. Only a third of them remain operational.
Israel justifies these attacks by saying that Hamas uses them for military purposes — an allegation that both hospital officials and Hamas deny.
Doctor Marwan al-Hams told Reuters that Israel placed the Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital in the center of the battlefield. “His threats against him caused people and patients to leave the hospital,” he said, adding that some medical staff also left.
The dialysis department for patients with kidney diseases remains open for now, he added.
World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris warned that its closure would immediately put the lives of around 200 dialysis patients at risk because it is the only one in Gaza.
“If they are closed, that means all these people just died from kidney failure, because that’s what’s keeping them alive,” he said. Other medical services in Rafah have already been affected, with some services suspended.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been seized by Israel and closed, preventing both medical evacuations of sick and injured people and the import of medicine, medical aid groups say. Gaza's Health Ministry said 140 patients were scheduled to leave the besieged enclave on Tuesday for treatment.
Source: CNN Brasil
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