Occupied Jerusalem-SANA
The Israeli occupation is tightening the cycles of its siege imposed nearly 16 years ago on the Gaza Strip by preventing the entry of medicines, medical devices and spare parts needed to repair the broken ones, including the oxygen stations needed to combat the Corona virus, which threatens the lives of Gaza patients, especially with the outbreak of the fourth wave of the epidemic, in light of the neglect of the international community Their suffering and silence towards the continuous violations of international law and human rights.
In a statement to SANA reporter, Dr. Raafat Al-Majdalawi, director of the Union of Health Work Committees in the Gaza Strip, explained that the occupation deliberately sabotaged and paralyzed the hospitals of the Strip, which provide services to about 2.3 million people, by preventing the entry of medical devices, especially diagnostic equipment for intensive care, nurseries, orthopedic and chest diseases, and respiratory screening centers, in addition to preventing the introduction of spare parts. Spare parts for more than 22 broken medical devices and did not allow them to be maintained abroad, pointing out that the occupation was not satisfied with that, but rather increased the suffering of patients by preventing them from leaving the Gaza Strip to receive treatment in West Bank hospitals, which caused the death of many of them and worsened the health situation of thousands because they did not receive proper treatment.
Al-Majdalawi pointed out that more than 12,000 patients in medical centers are on waiting lists due to the lack of equipment needed to perform surgical operations, and that most international medical companies withdrew their agencies due to their inability to supply medical devices due to the occupation’s refusal to do so, which plunged hospitals and patients into a new crisis that added to the crisis. Corona epidemic outbreak.
Al-Majdalawi stressed that the health sector in Gaza is threatened with collapse as a result of the Israeli siege, and its balance has become zero in many medicines, calling on all free people in the world and international health institutions to pressure the occupation to bring in medicines, medical devices and supplies to save the lives of thousands of patients in the Strip.
For his part, Director of Al-Awda Hospital, Ahmed Muhanna, indicated that the hospital has the only color-ray machine in the northern Gaza Strip, which has been out of action for a long time due to the lack of spare parts for it and the refusal of the occupation to enter them or even import new devices, in addition to the lack of an oxygen station, where reliance on cylinders is insufficient. To provide services to patients in light of the continuous rise in the number of corona infections, pointing out that the acute shortage of endoscopy devices, drugs and medicines for chronic diseases made the work of hospitals limited to providing the minimum services for patients, which portends a humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged sector.
Doctor Shafiq al-Attar warned of the seriousness of the health situation in the Gaza Strip and said that most hospitals are postponing surgeries and diagnostic pictures of patients due to the lack of medical devices and the loss of many medical items for several months. computed tomography devices and not kidney disease devices, stressing that many patients have lost their lives as a result of the lack of treatment and medical devices, and that the list of victims will grow day after day if the catastrophic health situation in the Gaza Strip continues as it is and the international community does not move to save medical facilities from collapsing due to the Israeli siege .
The head of the NGO Network, Mohsen Abu Ramadan, called on the international community not to be satisfied with statements of condemnation of the Israeli blockade and to translate this into steps that put an end to the suffering by pressing the occupation to end its unjust siege, stressing that the distress call launched by health facilities and hospitals in the Strip must act in the conscience of the free world with all its organizations and institutions. To work on providing medicines and medical devices to avoid the health disaster that the occupation is deliberately causing in a desperate attempt to undermine the steadfastness and resistance of the Palestinian people.
Mohammed Abu Shabab
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