“The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Reopening the corridor is crucial so we can continue to provide life-saving treatments at hospitals in East Jerusalem, where we have the capacity and medical expertise.”
Palestinian and international doctors have called for the opening of a humanitarian corridor from the Gaza Strip to enable the urgent evacuation of 25,000 patients to hospitals in East Jerusalem or elsewhere.
The call came during a press conference at the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem as Israel’s ongoing genocide renders most of the enclave’s medical facilities non-operational, reported the Anadolu news agency.
During a press conference at Augusta Victoria Hospital in occupied Jerusalem, Palestinian and international doctors demanded the urgent evacuation of over 25,000 critically ill and injured patients from Gaza to hospitals in occupied Jerusalem or elsewhere.
Gaza’s healthcare… pic.twitter.com/v6msQlGhGM
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 4, 2024
“The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Reopening the corridor is crucial so we can continue to provide life-saving treatments at hospitals in East Jerusalem, where we have the capacity and medical expertise,” Dr. Fadi Al-Atresh, CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital, said.
“We request that all Gaza patients be given a chance for treatment. The shortest and most effective route is allowing them to leave Gaza for hospitals in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,” Al-Atresh told Anadolu.
Three Key Steps
The doctors emphasized that based on estimates, 25,000 people in Gaza urgently require life-saving medical treatment due to their critical conditions.
They outlined three key steps to address the crisis, including the establishment of safe medical evacuation routes to ensure patients can reach hospitals in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, or third countries; ensuring families stay together during treatment, and; supporting the right of evacuated Palestinians to return to Gaza once medical care is completed, without choosing between their health and homeland.
DIRECTOR OF GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY:
Stopping the oxygen supply means stopping the entire health service.
More than 100 patients inside Kamal Adwan Hospital are at risk of death. pic.twitter.com/rZKm3q7z57
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) December 4, 2024
Dr. Guy Shalev, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, condemned the ongoing suffering in Gaza, asserting that reopening the humanitarian corridor is the only sustainable solution to the medical emergency that is costing lives daily.
“There is no hope left for civilians in Gaza while these attacks continue, and no limitations are placed on Israel to halt its actions,” Shalev said.
‘Cannot Allow Children to Die’
Dr. Khadra Salama, a pediatric oncologist, highlighted the severe suffering of Gaza’s children, many of whom can no longer access life-saving cancer treatments that were already scarce before the Israeli genocide.
“We cannot allow these children to die simply because they cannot get the care they desperately need,” Dr. Salama said during the conference.
World Health Organization (WHO) representative Dr. Rik Peeperkorn stressed the urgent need for humanitarian access, facilitating medical supplies, patient evacuations and entry for humanitarian teams to provide life-saving care.
Violet Mubarak, director of the Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre, called for immediate action to protect the rights of disabled children in Gaza, emphasizing that “every child in Gaza deserves early medical intervention and life-saving services in their Palestinian context.”
Hospitals Systematically Targeted
Six specialized hospitals in East Jerusalem have provided medical care for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza for decades, said the Anadolu report. However, Israel restricts Palestinian access to these hospitals, requiring special permits that have been suspended for Gaza residents since the beginning of the Israeli genocide on Gaza in October 2023.
Attacks on #healthcare have become the “new norm” in Israeli military aggressions. In #Gaza, the West Bank, & Lebanon, Israeli attacks on healthcare are the opposite of rare or exceptional incidents. They are regular, daily, & deadly. pic.twitter.com/VmufamU9ZH
— Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) (@PHRIsrael) November 25, 2024
Following the closure of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in May as Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing, it has become impossible to transfer patients from Gaza for treatment outside the territory.
Gaza’s hospitals are suffering from a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies due to the ongoing war.
For more than a year, Israel has systematically targeted Gaza’s hospitals through bombings, repeated raids and attacks on medical staff, patients and ambulances, claiming that military sites belonging to the Palestinian group Hamas are located within these hospitals – an accusation repeatedly denied by the group and unproven by Israel.
(Anadolu, PC)
