Al-Qudra pointed out that the Health Ministry had recorded more than 8,000 cases of Hepatitis A infection as a result of overcrowding.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has recorded hundreds of cases of miscarriage and premature birth, as a result of stress, panic and forced displacement under Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
A spokesperson for the department, Ashraf al-Qudra, reportedly told reporters on Thursday “the lack of health care in places of displacement and the difficulty of reaching hospitals exposes the lives of about 60,000 pregnant women to the risk of pregnancy complications.
Speaking in front of Tal Al-Sultan Maternity Hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, al-Qudra said that during the past 24 hours, the Israeli occupation “committed 15 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, killing 172 people and wounding 326 others”, the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported.
He added that more victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads, while ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.
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Al-Qudra pointed out that the Health Ministry had recorded more than 8,000 cases of Hepatitis A infection as a result of overcrowding and low levels of personal hygiene in places of displacement, expecting the number of infections to double across the besieged Gaza Strip, the report adds.
He called on all international parties “to establish new effective mechanisms that guarantee the flow of medical aid in accordance with the declared needs.”
The spokesperson also “called on Egypt, the Arab countries and the free world to find new mechanisms to ensure the exit of more than 6,500 wounded as an urgent priority and to treat them in their hospitals,” the MEMO report continues.
20,000 Babies Born into War
Earlier, a UNICEF spokesperson said nearly 20,000 Palestinian babies have been born into war in the Gaza Strip, while 135,000 children under age two in the besieged enclave are at severe risk of malnutrition.
“That’s a baby born into this horrendous war every 10 minutes,” Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson told a press briefing in Geneva on Friday.
Ingram said one of the nurses had “performed emergency cesareans on six dead women” in the last eight weeks.
The nurse, she added, told her that, “There are also more miscarriages because of the unhealthy air and smoke due to the bombing. This has happened more times than I can count.”
“Humanity cannot allow this warped version of normal to persist any longer. Mothers and newborns need a humanitarian ceasefire,” the UNICEF official said.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 24,762 Palestinians have been killed, and 62,108 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
(PC, MEMO)
