10 Thousand Cancer Patients In Gaza Can't Get Medicine After Hospitals Are Forced To Force Israeli Soldiers

Gaza/DOK WHO via news.un.org

JAKARTA - The head of the hospital in the Gaza Strip on Monday said there were 10,000 cancer patients who desperately needed medicine after the only cancer-only hospital in the enclave was forcibly closed by Israeli soldiers at the start of the attack that destroyed Gaza.

"After Turkey-Palestinian Friendship Hospital specifically for cancer was forcibly closed, there were about 10 thousand patients facing inhumane circumstances," said the hospital director, Subhi Skaik, in a statement reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Tuesday, January 2.

He said that currently cancer patients in Gaza could not access cancer treatment at all.

He urged countries around the world to help the hospital operate again and called it "the only help for cancer patients in Gaza".

Earlier in late October, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital had to stop operating after being bombarded by Israeli soldiers.

The hospital was built in 2011-2017 with the help of funding from the Turkish government and became the only hospital for cancer treatment in Gaza.

The hospital building has six floors with a capacity of 180 beds and stands on an area of 34,800 square meters.

Israel has been attacking the Gaza Strip since the cross-border attack by the Palestinian Hamas group on October 7. At least 21,978 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 57,697 others injured, according to local health authorities.

About 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7, including soldiers, according to Telaviv.