The non-governmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today called on the parties to the conflict in the Gaza Strip to ensure safe access to hospitals for the sick and injured, stressing that July has been a "horrible month".
"MSF urgently calls on all parties to the conflict to ensure safe access to medical care for the population and to prevent the evacuation of Nasser hospital [in Gaza City], which would put hundreds of patients at risk", reads a statement from the humanitarian organization, to which the Lusa news agency had access.
"Every day in July has been one shock after another", said Javid Abdelmoneim, head of the MSF medical team, reporting that, on the 24th of this month, he found an eight-year-old girl behind a curtain in Nasser hospital, alone and seriously injured, who would eventually succumb to her injuries.
For Abdelmoneim, this is the "reflection of a health system in collapse".
"An eight-year-old girl, dying alone on a cart in the emergency room. In a functioning health system, she would have been saved," he lamented.
In the statement, MSF argues that Nasser hospital must be protected as the last remaining major hospitals in central and southern Gaza are struggling “with the deadly month of July”.
In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, fighting is moving ever closer to Nasser hospital, putting it under threat and jeopardising the population’s access to medical care.
This comes as MSF teams in Nasser and al-Aqsa hospitals have responded to 10 mass influxes of seriously injured people in July alone, following shelling in the area.
“Any escalation of fighting near the hospital would obstruct access for patients and medical staff, making it impossible to provide care,” says Jacob Granger, MSF’s project coordinator in Gaza.
"The health system is completely decimated and evacuating hundreds of patients and medical supplies, hastily or not, would be an impossible task and would have devastating consequences for the people of the region, who have nowhere to go," said Granger, who believes closing the Nasser hospital "is not an option."
