Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza is reportedly losing hundreds of patients and staff members. The hospital is having difficulty keeping up with the heavy airstrikes that are occurring throughout the enclave.
According to reports released on Monday by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), most medical staff members and approximately 600 patients were compelled to evacuate the complex, disappearing into unidentified areas without any knowledge of their whereabouts.
The two institutions note chaotic scenes as the remaining staff at the hospital continues to try to cope with an influx of injured people as “heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea intensified across much of the Gaza Strip”.
On Sunday, representatives from the WHO and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) paid a visit to the sole operational hospital located in the central Gazan governorate of Deir el-Balah. They mentioned how the heavy bombing had forced many to go to Al-Aqsa for medical attention.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks on January 5–7 resulted in 225 Palestinian deaths and 296 injuries.
The officials demanded greater security for medical facilities, claiming that a small number of workers at the hospital were treating a huge number of injured patients.
The director of the hospital reported that because of increasing hostilities and ongoing evacuation orders, most local health workers and about 600 patients have been forced to leave the facility to unknown locations.
Every few minutes, fresh patients were coming at the hospital, according to Sean Casey, a WHO official. He also mentioned that only five doctors were left to manage hundreds of emergency cases and casualties because of the perilous circumstances and evacuation orders.
“It is really a chaotic scene. The hospital director just spoke to us, and he said his one request is that this hospital be protected, even though many of his staff have left,” Casey said.
“This hospital is currently operating with about 30 percent of the staff that it had just a few days ago. They are seeing, in some cases, hundreds of casualties every day in a small emergency department.”
