Southern Gaza hospitals at "breaking point," Red Cross warns

Gaza - All health facilities in southern Gaza have been pushed to "breaking point" due to an influx of people wounded by Israeli bombardments, and doctors could soon be forced to make "difficult choices" on who gets treated, the Red Cross said Thursday.

People pray near the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the Gaza Strip's Deir Al-Balah.
People pray near the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the Gaza Strip's Deir Al-Balah.  © REUTERS

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its 60-bed field hospital in the city of Rafah took in 26 people requiring hospitalization for shrapnel and other injuries after a strike on the Al-Mawasi camp for displaced people on Saturday.

The health ministry in the occupied territory said at least 90 people were killed and 300 injured in the strike that Israel claimed targeted military commanders behind the October 7 attack.

"The repeated mass casualty events resulting from the unrelenting hostilities have stretched to breaking point the response capacity of our hospital – and all health facilities in southern Gaza – to care for those with life-threatening injuries," William Schomburg, Gaza head of the ICRC delegation, said in a statement.

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"Another mass casualty event would force our doctors and nurses to make extremely difficult choices," he said, citing limited supplies for treatment and repeated hospital closings.

Red Cross struggles to provide care for wounded Gazans

Last week also saw an influx of 850 people requiring outpatient care at the Red Cross hospital, "nearly half of whom are women and a third are children," the Red Cross said.

"Most of the patients have been displaced from their homes multiple times and are living with little food and clean water, in overcrowded areas, making it easier for them to fall sick," the statement said.

Since May, it said the hospital had carried out more than 500 surgeries and 12,000 consultations.

Israel's offensive has devastated the narrow coastal territory and killed at least 38,794 people since October, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry.

Cover photo: REUTERS

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