Save the Children denounces that attacks on hospitals in Gaza surpass any recent conflict
The NGO Save the Children has denounced this Monday that the attacks against hospitals and health personnel in the Gaza Strip have surpassed any other recent conflict, recording 73 attacks every month since October 7, 2023, when the Israeli Army’s offensive against the Palestinian enclave began after the attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Save the Children has highlighted that so far there have been at least 435 attacks against medical facilities or personnel in Gaza during this period, although these “They have not been limited to Gaza“, but has also affected the occupied West Bank, where 369 attacks have been recorded. On this occasion, the majority of cases are obstructions to health access and use of force within health facilities.
Compared to conflicts recorded in recent years in other countries, Ukraine registers 67 attacks per month, being the second country with the highest number, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has an average of eleven attacks.
PSYCHOLOGICALLY DESTROYED CHILDHOOD
In this context, the NGO has denounced that “Six months of constant bombing, siege and obstruction of aid deliveries have annihilated the health system in Gaza. Only eleven of the 36 hospitals are partially functioning“, while adding that some 350,000 people suffer from chronic diseases in Gaza and cannot access vital medicines and supplies.
“We have recently seen a influx of boys and girls from other hospitals with injuries and missing limbs, often require skin grafts and multiple operations, but even getting things as simple as a strong painkiller is a big challenge,” explained Becky Platt, a pediatric nurse at the field hospital where Save the Children operates in Rafá.
The nurse has reported that they are forced to subject children to interventions “with fewer painkillers than we would normally use,” which causes “great distress and also long-term psychological damage.” “The boys and girls are psychologically destroyed by everything that has happened,” she said.
Simon Struthers, a pediatrician at the Rafá field hospital, has seen acute respiratory infections, cases of malnutrition, scabies, hepatitis A. “I have seen more jaundice in the last two weeks than in my entire career. We treat many children with acute gastroenteritis, which is spread through the fecal route. “Washing your hands would reduce it, but now everyone is displaced, living in tents and, unfortunately, overcrowding and lack of sanitation or clean water increase the risks,” he explained.
While he indicated that the lack of medications makes the treatment of simple diseases difficult, he recalled that chronic pediatric problems “are extremely difficult”, such as cerebral palsy or “similar diseases that cannot be treated.” “Everything is on pause, including standard operations,” has reported.
The director of Save the Children for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Xavier Joubert, has insisted that attacks against health services are “simply unjustifiable and must stop”, while emphasizing that “after six months of unimaginable horror, Gaza’s health system has been brought to its knees.” “Healthcare workers risk their lives every day to give Palestinian children a chance to survive. (…) Palestinian children must have unhindered access to services, including health care and education,” he concluded. Joubert.
