14 patients evacuated from Nasser Hospital
THE World Health Organisation (WHO) says it has helped facilitate the evacuation of 14 patients from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which has been under siege and has come under fire from Israeli forces over the past several weeks.
“After two days of being denied entry into the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza, yesterday WHO and partners were allowed to go inside to assess the patients,” WHO chief Mr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post.
“As a result, lifesaving medical referral of 14 critical patients was facilitated. Two patients needed continuous manual ventilation throughout their journey.”
Mr Ghebreyesus also noted that 180 patients and 15 doctors and nurses remain inside Nasser.
“The hospital is still experiencing an acute shortage of food, basic medical supplies, and oxygen. There is no tap water and no electricity, except a backup generator maintaining some lifesaving machines,” he added.
Since Israel started its bombardment of Palestine early October last year, at least 29 092 people, mainly women and children have been killed and 69 028 injured, said the Health Ministry.
The Health Ministry also said at least eight people are dead at Nasser Hospital after the Israeli military cut electricity and oxygen supplies.
A heart-wrenching footage verified by Al Jazeera yesterday showed hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza City rushing towards aid trucks before fleeing after Israeli forces opened fire on them.
Meanwhile, a report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) reveals that Palestinian prisoners have been beaten, abused, sexually humiliated and medically neglected since October 7.
The findings outline a pattern of daily violence in which Israeli guards indiscriminately assault Palestinians with batons, including incidents of sexually explicit insults and urination on detainees.
The PHRI also stated that Palestinian prisoners were on occasion held in confinement for days or placed in overcrowded cells and deprived of water and electricity for up to 23 hours daily.
The report documented forced disappearances of hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza.
As Israel escalates its war across the entire region, its military yesterday hit a tyre factory, a power generator plant and near a tile factory in Lebanon.
Lebanese TV channel Al Jadeed interviewed a man who said he owns the generator factory as a fire raged at the site in the background. “We make power generators. Our company is called Infinite Power. We’ve been open for a year,” he said. “You can go and see — there is nothing but power generators and offices.” Al Jazeera senior political editor Marwan Bishara says while the rest of the world is now “fed up” with Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, US support has allowed Israel to continue to violate international law.
“Without American backing, Israel wouldn’t be ridiculing international law; it wouldn’t be calling the international community a circus,” he said.
“But Israel is able to do all that — to continue to work with impunity — because it is supported by the United States.”