Concrete actions must be taken to preserve access to life-saving and emergency medical care in the Gaza Strip, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Thursday.
"Today, for approximately 2 million people, the Nasser Medical Complex and the European Gaza Hospital (EGH) both located in the south of the Gaza Strip are the only two referral hospitals that provide advanced surgical and medical emergency services with large bed capacities, which is not sufficient for the current wounded and sick across Gaza," the ICRC said.
Less than 20% of Gaza's land roughly 60 square kilometers is now refuge to over 1.5 million people, the statement said, adding that these people are living in desperate circumstances in the south of the Gaza Strip where the dramatic escalation of the fighting threatens their survival.
"Every hospital in the Gaza Strip is over-crowded and short on medical supplies, fuel, food and water. Many are housing thousands of displaced families. And now two more facilities risk being lost due to the fighting. The cumulative impact on the health system is devastating and urgent action must be taken," head of the ICRC's office in Gaza William Schomburg said.
International humanitarian law states that all parties to the conflict must fully respect and protect the medical infrastructure.
The ICRC emphasised that "the humanitarian imperative to protect Gaza's health facilities is clear. If these medical facilities especially Nasser and EGH cease to function, the world will bear witness to untold thousands of preventable deaths given the size of the population, the current extreme living conditions, a collapsing health system, and the intensity of the fighting."
The International Committee of the Red Cross also emphasised the need for immediate steps to ensure the hospitals and the people within them are safe; to ensure that health personnel, wounded and sick people, and ambulances can safely access the hospital; and to facilitate the timely re-supply of items necessary to the functioning of the hospitals including medicine, fuel, food and water.