WHO says Palestinian civilians have 'no safe place left to go'

GENEVA

Palestinian civilians have "no safe place left to go" as violence has intensified, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"With ongoing airstrikes, civilians have no safe place left to go. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed WHO that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients from the north of Gaza," Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesperson, told a UN press briefing in Geneva.

Jasarevic said WHO has joined the wider UN in appealing to Israel to "immediately rescind orders for the evacuation within the next 24 hours of 1.1 million people living north of Wadi Gaza, and an end to hostilities and violence in the Gaza Strip, where unimaginable human suffering is unfolding."

Regarding the health system, he said that the hospitals in the south of Gaza are already "overflowing," and added that vulnerable hospital patients include those already critically injured, and adults, children, and newborns depending on life support in intensive care.

"Health system in the Gaza Strip is at a breaking point," he warned.

"Time is running out to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe if fuel, water, food and life-saving health and humanitarian supplies cannot be urgently delivered to the Gaza Strip amidst the complete blockade," he said.

The spokesperson stressed that hospitals only have a few hours of electricity each day as they are forced to ration depleting fuel reserves and rely on generators to sustain the most critical functions.

Jasarevic said that even these functions would cease in a few days when fuel stocks run out.

"The impact would be devastating for the most vulnerable patients, including the injured who need lifesaving surgery, patients in intensive care units, and newborns depending on care in incubators," he said.

In a dramatic escalation of Middle East tensions, Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip, a response to a military offensive by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in Israeli territories.

The conflict began last Saturday when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea and air.

Hamas said the operation was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers' growing violence against Palestinians.

The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.

Israel's response has extended into cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that has reeled under a crippling siege since 2007