Interview – Gaza official: 1.9 Million Displaced Live in Catastrophic Conditions In Gaza
(AWP) - A spokesman for the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said that 1.9 million displaced people are living under "catastrophic" health circumstances, and called on international organisations to immediately provide basic living necessities, including water, food and medicine.
Spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra accused Israel of "strangling" the health system in the strip, where more than 22,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the ongoing war on October 7th.
"There are more than 1,900,000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip. They live in extremely harsh and even catastrophic humanitarian and health conditions. They face famine and the spread of infectious diseases,” Al-Qudra told AWP.
”We call on all concerned parties and international institutions to immediately work to provide the necessities of living, including water, food, medicine, and health care, for the displaced,” he added.
He accused Israel of arresting 99 medical personnel in Gaza, stressing that it is "part of the ongoing, open war against the health system, to further the collapse of the health system so that it is no longer able to fulfill its medical obligations to save the lives of our people,” he added.
“As we previously announced, the collapse of the health system is ongoing, as a result of the occupation’s strangulation and targeting of the health system, and its opposition to bringing in health supplies according to the needs of the health system. The occupation also does not give priority to the exit of the wounded for treatment outside the Gaza Strip. This, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced people having to shelter in medical centres and hospitals, hinders work in hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” Al-Qudra concluded.