ICRC Calls Health Facilities In The Southern Gaza Strip A Critical Point

IDF troops around Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza. (Source: Israel Defense Forces)

JAKARTA - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday said all health facilities in the southern Gaza Strip had reached a critical point due to an ongoing Israeli occupation attack.

Director of the ICRC subdelegation in Gaza, William Schomburg, said the large number of victims caused the ICRC hospital and all health facilities in southern Gaza to reach a critical point and were unable to treat those suffering life-threatening injuries.

The organization indicated its field hospitals covered 60 beds in the Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Schomburg further explained that the bombing of occupation soldiers in the Al-Mawasi area last Saturday resulted in the arrival of 26 people injured at the facility, including children injured by shrapnel.

The committee stressed that other aggression that causes large numbers of victims will force doctors and nurses to make very difficult choices, explaining that the current medical needs of civilians far exceed the limited available capabilities.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pankaj Galdial said, "It is not imagined how many patients need resuscitation after the entry of injured victims on Saturday, apart from 26 injured victims who were transferred from Al-Mawasi to the Red Cross field hospital to receive treatment.

"The facility received an additional 850 people in outpatients last week, about half of whom were women and a third were children," Schomburg said, quoted by WAFA July 19.

The organization confirmed that most patients had fled their homes several times and lived with limited food and drinking water in dense areas, which made them more susceptible to disease.

Schomburg added that since the opening of the facility in May, his team has provided 12,000 medical consultations and more than 500 surgical operations.