Palestinian Victims Of Death Reach 35 Thousand People, Health Services In Gaza Threatened To Be Paralyzed

Illustration of the queue of aid trucks in Rafah from the Egyptian side. (Twitter/@ChinaAmbUN)

JAKARTA - Health services in the Gaza Strip region, Palestine are in danger of being paralyzed in the coming days, as the death toll of Palestinians in the enclave as Israeli attacks continue to grow.

Doctors in Gaza have warned that health services will be paralyzed in the next few days, if Israel does not allow the resumption of fuel shipments to war-torn Palestinian territories.

The supply of fuel, food and humanitarian aid through the two main relief crossings to Gaza was cut off last week, after Israel launched a military operation in the southern Rafah region, where the two crossings are located.

Gaza Crossing and Border Authority said the closure of the Abu Salam commercial crossing from Israel to the southern Rafah had prevented aid from entering for seven consecutive days until Sunday.

Deliveries via the Rafah crossing from Egypt, the only fuel entrance, according to the aid agency, stalled after Israeli forces took control on Tuesday.

Direktur Rumah Sakit Martir Al Aqsa di pusat Kota Deir Al Balah Dr. Raed Hussain mengatakan kepada The National News pada Hari Minggu, mereka tidak akan dapat terus memberikan layanan lebih dari 48 jam tanpa pasokan bahan segar.

"We haven't received any fuel for five days. We need about 3,500 liters of fuel every day to operate the generator," said Dr Hussain, as quoted May 13.

He further said the situation was becoming increasingly sad, due to the rapid increase in the population in central Gaza as people fled Israeli bombings and military progress in other regions.

"The number of residents in the central Gaza Strip has reached 800,000 after the transfer of people from Rafah to the city of Deir Al Balah, which was previously home to 400,000 people," said Dr. Hussain.

"This excessive density requires more health services and an increase in hospital capacity," he said.

About 280,000 people have fled the eastern region of Rafah since Israel ordered them out before carrying out military operations there last Monday, according to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, while thousands more began leaving the Jabalia Camp in northern Gaza on the orders of Saturday's army.

UNRWA Communications Director Tamara Al Rafie said the Rafah border area was still closed and caused aid supplies to slow down, as thousands of people lacked food and water.

"Aid is still very rare because Rafah is still closed. A number of trucks entered through the Abu Salem Karam yesterday. In terms of fuel, we received some on Thursday but less than 200,000 liters," said Al Rafie.

Separately, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on Sunday that about 63 people had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll in the region to 35,034 since the war broke out on October 7, 2023.

Meanwhile, about 114 people were injured in the same period, bringing the total number of injured victims since the latest Israeli-Hamas conflict broke out to 78,755 people.