‘Horrific trauma patients’: WHO details harrowing scenes from Gaza

A World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Gaza has detailed horrific scenes as efforts are underway to provide vital medical and humanitarian supplies to hospitals that have been completely destroyed or severely damaged by Israel’s genocidal attack.

“When we were in Gaza City two days back to al-Ahli Hospital bringing in the most needed trauma supplies – IV fluids, saline, IV antibiotics, also some lab equipment and food for patients and staff etc – bombardments were all over the place where we were,” Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, told a media briefing on Wednesday.

“We saw a constant stream of trauma patients, horrific trauma patients, young girls with severe burn wounds, boys gasping,” he added.

“Currently in Gaza, everywhere I go, and I’ve been in Gaza City just a couple of days ago, and here in the south and everywhere, people live between anxiety and hope,” he said, referring to the ongoing talks in Egypt to broker an end to the fighting.

According to Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, who is in charge of Gaza, just 14 of the 36 hospitals in the territory are partially operational, and only one-third of the 176 primary care centers are operational.

According to Balkhy, who was speaking at a media briefing, Gaza has been dealing with “dire shortages” of clean water, energy, medicine, broken equipment, and damaged infrastructure in the health facilities that are still operational. Additionally, according to Balkhy, one in five babies in Gaza are born underweight or prematurely, and seven out of ten pregnant and nursing women suffer from acute malnutrition.

In a video broadcast online, James Elder, a UNICEF representative who is presently in Gaza, claims that the Israeli army has four times refused the organization’s request to enter northern Gaza in order to retrieve incubators for infants. According to the ministry, two dead have also been found among the debris from earlier Israeli attacks over the same period.

According to the message sent on Telegram, Israel’s attack on Gaza has killed 67,183 Palestinians and injured 169,841 more since October 7, 2023.

The peace negotiations that have been taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the past three days have not stopped the deaths. The United States, Qatar, and Egypt are acting as intermediaries in the indirect communication between Israel and Hamas.