Gaza’s medical catastrophe: No hospitals function in the north

As the Zionist occupiers continue their relentless attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip while simultaneously waging a systematic war against hospitals and medical facilities, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital, stated in recent remarks regarding the collapse of Gaza's healthcare system that hospitals in northern Gaza have completely shut down.

Dr. Abu Salmiya emphasized in a press statement: "As the number of wounded continues to rise amid the Zionists' frenzied attacks, no medical center anywhere in Gaza is able to operate at full capacity."

He added: "Since the beginning of the war, the Zionists have destroyed a large number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and in recent days, they have been destroying what remains of these hospitals, while there is no international support for Gaza’s medical centers or healthcare workers."

This Gaza medical official stressed: "Since the start of the war, the occupiers have destroyed a significant percentage of the Gaza Strip’s hospitals and are now completing their crimes against hospitals and medical centers. Cancer patients are dying every day due to the destruction of hospitals and the lack of medical equipment."

Dr. Abu Salmiya noted: "Dozens of cancer patients lose their lives daily due to the lack of services, whether because of hospital destruction or shortages of medicine and medical equipment, and Gaza’s healthcare situation has become catastrophic in every sense."

He asserted: "The Zionist attacks are not limited to hospitals and medical centers; they also target medicine warehouses, which is a systematic war to completely destroy Gaza’s healthcare system and deprive civilians of their right to treatment and survival."

Dr. Abu Salmiya stated that the Indonesian Hospital has also completely ceased operations following intensified Zionist sieges, prevention of patients and medical staff from entering, and continued brutal attacks on the facility.

On the other hand, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, director of field hospitals in the Gaza Strip, stated that amid continuous bombardments and the enemy’s use of prohibited weapons, cancer rates among Gaza’s population have increased, and the depth of this catastrophe will become even more evident in three to four years, with a significant number of people developing various types of cancer.

He noted: "According to official World Health Organization statistics, 11,000 people in Gaza need treatment outside the region, but according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 25,000 wounded and injured individuals require treatment abroad, all of whom are facing death at any moment."

This Gaza medical official, pointing out that Gaza has truly entered a stage of healthcare system collapse, said: "For example, cardiology and cardiac surgery services have stopped, 85% of orthopedic surgery services and 73% of general surgery services are no longer provided, and the continuation of the siege means the collective death of all patients and the injured in Gaza. The World Health Organization and other relevant international bodies are aware of Gaza’s situation but are unable to act, and the occupying regime has targeted all centers and personnel affiliated with the Red Cross, the International Medical Corps, and Doctors Without Borders here."