The World Health Organisation has joined the wider United Nations in appealing to Israel to immediately rescind orders for the evacuation of over 1 million people living north of Wadi Gaza.
According to the statement released by the World Body on Friday, said the mass evacuation would be disastrous for patients, health workers and other civilians left behind or caught in the mass movement.
The Israeli army ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to get out of Gaza and move south within the next 24 hours. Deadline expected to expire in a few as Israel appears set for a massive ground invasion of Gaza with over 300,000 soldiers.
While reacting to the order, the United Nations said, “This is about 1.1 million people. The same order applied to all UN personnel and those taking refuge in UN facilities – including schools, health centers and clinics.”
In statement, the UN considers it impossible to carry out such a movement without catastrophic humanitarian consequences, urged that such order, be revoked, avoiding what could turn an already tragic situation into a catastrophic one.
Bolstering the UN’s statement, the World Health Organisation said that with the ongoing airstrikes and closed borders, civilians have no safe place to go, adding that almost half of the population of Gaza is under 18 years of age.
WHO said further, “With dwindling supplies of safe food, clean water, health services, and without adequate shelter, children and adults, including the elderly, will all be at heightened risk of disease.
It added that the Palestinian Ministry of Health informed the World Health Body that it’s impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients without endangering their lives, saying vulnerable patients include those who are critically injured or dependent on life support.
“Moving them amid hostilities puts their lives at immediate risk. The two Ministry of Health hospitals in the North of Gaza that continue to be operational, have greatly exceeded their combined 760-bed capacity with severe overcrowding.
“Of the thousands of patients with injuries, other conditions receiving care in hospitals, there are hundreds that are severely wounded and over 100 who require critical care. These are the sickest of the sick. Many thousands more, also with wounds or other health needs, cannot access any kind of care.
“The compressed timeframe, complex transport logistics, damaged roads, and, above all, lack of supportive care during transport all add to the difficulty of moving them”, WHO said.
Furthermore, the World Body said the four Ministry of Health hospitals in the south of Gaza are already at or beyond capacity, and lack the critical care capacity and supplies needed to treat additional patients.
It added that the lack of medical supplies is already endangering patients and hampering health workers. “Supplies which WHO had pre-positioned in Gaza have mostly been consumed”.
On 9 October, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who agreed to request to facilitate the delivery of health and other humanitarian supplies from WHO to Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
WHO prepared medical supplies in its logistics hub in Dubai and is ready to deliver them to Areesh, Egypt—just 20 minutes from Rafah—as soon as landing permit is received. “The supplies would be enough to care for more than 300,000 patients with a range of wounds and diseases”.
WHO asked for the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor for their onward, safe delivery to health care facilities in Gaza, including via Rafah.
The Body reiterated plea for humanitarian access for life-saving supplies and the delivery of fuel, water, and food; for protection under international humanitarian law for civilians, health workers and health infrastructure; and ultimately, for an end to hostilities and violence.