Press Release Ministry of Health Gaza July 18th 2014


Air strikes. Naval bombardment. Land invasion. New generation DIME weapons. Poison Gas. Children killed in their beds, at the dinner table, playing on the beach. Doctors’ homes wantonly destroyed. Hospital after hospital attacked – European Hospital, Wafa Hospital, Beit Hanoun. Will Shifa Hospital be next?

The brutal Israeli escalation worsens by the hour. We already have 274 Palestinians dead, 76 percent of whom were killed in their homes. Of our 2,196 injured, 78 percent were wounded at home. The toll continues to rise rapidly.

Eighteen families have lost between two and 17 members, almost 2,000 families have been made homeless. 22,900 people are in UNRWA emergency shelters. 50 percent of sewage pumping and treatment stations are no longer operational, posing a potential public health disaster.

Essential medicines and medical supplies are severely depleted. 50 essential drug items and 20 disposables are urgently needed at Gaza hospitals. Half of psycho-tropic drugs are at zero stock. Israeli authorities have ceased supplying electricity to the Gaza power station, and Shifa hospital’s generator fuel supplies will last a week at the most.

Eight anaesthesia machines, 10 ventilators, five electrosurgical units, 20 vital sign monitors, ECG machines, five defibrillator machines, syringe and infusion pumps are urgently needed. Specialists in neurosurgery, anaesthesiology, plastic surgery, general trauma surgery, advanced orthopaedics and burn management are urgently needed.

"The situation is impossible. We can’t perform appropriate procedures, we can only do damage control because we don’t have the necessary medical supplies or personnel," reports Chief Surgeon and Medical Director of Shifa Hospital Dr Sobhi Skaik.

Health facilities and personnel lack adequate protection – a second physician was killed today, and staff cannot access the pharmacy stores without danger. Ambulances are prevented from accessing the wounded, leaving them to bleed to death.

This unbridled Israeli aggression must cease immediately. It must be MADE to end.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza therefore calls on the international community, human rights organisations, and all people of good conscience everywhere to:

Bring a swift end to the disproportionate and criminal Israeli assaults against the Gaza Strip;
Provide the necessary fuel and medical items to ensure the provision of adequate health care to the thousands of wounded;
Ensure the siege of Gaza is lifted at once, to enable fuel, medicines, supplies, medical teams and patients free movement across the borders;
Hold the rogue state of Israel accountable, and end its impunity for the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and preventing the entry of humanitarian aid, which are serious violations of humanitarian and international law.

Contacts:

Dr Yousef AbuAlrish, Deputy Minister of Health +972 597 918 339

Dr Medhat Abbas, Director General, Ministry of Health +972 599 403 547