Gaza: forced evacuation of patients could be “the equivalent of a death sentence”, warns WHO

The term chosen is strong. The forced evacuation of thousands of patients from northern Gaza to overwhelmed establishments in the south of the territory could be “the equivalent of a death sentence”, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Saturday evening. The Israeli army ordered all residents of the north of the territory, including the sick and wounded, to go south for a ground intervention against Hamas, a week after the bloody attack launched by it -this.

“The WHO strongly condemns repeated Israeli orders to evacuate 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 patients in northern Gaza,” the UN agency said in a statement, published at its headquarters in Geneva. Moving 2,000 patients to the south of Gaza, “where health structures are already at maximum capacity and are incapable of absorbing a considerable increase in the number of patients, could be the equivalent of a death sentence,” estimates -she.

More than 1,300 people were killed by Hamas commandos, mostly civilians, including children, and at least 120 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. The powerful Israeli response killed more than 2,200 people, including more than 700 children, in the Gaza Strip, a poor territory controlled by the Islamist organization. It left more than 8,700 injured, according to Hamas.

“The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further aggravate the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe,” notes the WHO. Seriously ill patients, in intensive care or on dialysis, newborns in incubators, pregnant women suffering from complications “all risk immediate deterioration of their condition or death if they are forced to move and are deprived of care vital during their evacuation,” warns the agency.

Health workers in northern Gaza face “heartbreaking choices” between abandoning their patients, putting them at risk of death by moving them, or putting their own lives on the line by staying by their side. “Overwhelmingly, health workers chose to stay and be faithful to their oath to “do no harm”,” underlines the WHO.