UN agencies on Tuesday reiterated their call for an urgent ceasefire and humanitarian access in Gaza following Israeli air strikes on Sunday that hit a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah.
The air strikes killed at least 45 people, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. Many of those injured suffered terrible burns, which will require intensive treatment, electricity and high-level medical services.
All of these medical services are scarce, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, after nearly eight months of war in the Palestinian territory.
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On 26 May, Palestinian armed groups fired a large barrage of rockets towards Tel Aviv in Israel, with several people reported to have been slightly injured. A few hours later, munitions from an Israeli aircraft struck a camp in the Al Hashash area in Rafah.
Reports from the ground indicate that several explosions and fires were ignited. Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said that the strike targeted senior Hamas officials.
It is just another massive challenge for all the medical teams in the enclave, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told journalists in Geneva.
“This is one of the hardest things for a doctor or nurse as you want to help, but you don’t have what it takes,” Dr. Harris said.
The Israeli incursion in Rafah has reportedly displaced medical staff while essential fuel stocks continue to dwindle as the UN humanitarian operation has been all but shut down in the latest escalation that began three weeks ago, sparked by a deadly Hamas rocket attack on the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
In condemning the attack, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that only a third of hospitals in Gaza “remain even partially functional”. The dire conditions mean that medical staff are not able to carry out the surgery needed to save a limb.
Around one million people have fled Rafah, in southern Gaza, since the start of the Israeli military operation on 6 May, which continues to intensify.
