The World Health Organisation has condemned the evacuation orders by Israel to hospitals in northern Gaza, describing it as “a death sentence for the sick and injured.”
This was disclosed in a statement posted on the official X handle of the WHO on Saturday.
The statement read, “As the United Nation’s agency responsible for public health, the World Health Organisation strongly condemns Israel’s repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2000 inpatients in northern Gaza. The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe.
“The lives of many critically ill and fragile patients hang in the balance: those in intensive care or who rely on life support; patients undergoing hemodialysis; newborns in incubators; women with complications of pregnancy, and others all face imminent deterioration of their condition or death if they are forced to move and are cut off from life-saving medical attention while being evacuated.”
The statement also noted that health facilities in northern Gaza continue to receive an influx of injured patients and are struggling to operate beyond maximum capacity as some patients are being treated in corridors and outdoors in surrounding streets due to a lack of hospital beds.
It further read, “Forcing more than 2000 patients to relocate to southern Gaza, where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number of patients, could be tantamount to a death sentence.
“Hospital directors and health workers are now facing an agonising choice: abandon critically ill patients amid a bombing campaign, put their own lives at risk while remaining on-site to treat patients, or endanger their patients’ lives while attempting to transport them to facilities that have no capacity to receive them.”
WHO calls for Israel to immediately reverse evacuation orders to hospitals in northern Gaza, and calls for the protection of health facilities, health workers, patients, and civilians.