“More healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since October than were reported killed in all conflicts globally in 2021 and 2022 combined,” according to Medical Aid for Palestine.
Israeli forces killed three civil defense team members while they were at work in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza late on Thursday, Al-Jazeera’s Arabic channel has reported.
Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said 18 of its ambulances have operating because of a fuel shortage.
The number “represents 36% of the PRCS’s ambulance fleet capacity,” the PRCS said on X on Thursday.
The organization stressed that it “has not received its daily share of gasoline from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for approximately eight days.”
This share previously covered “only 6% of the operational capacity of the ambulances,” it said, due to Israel having “prevented fuel from entering the Gaza Strip.”
🚨The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) expresses its concern over the halting of 18 ambulances in the #Gaza Strip due to fuel shortages, which represents 36% of the PRCS’s ambulance fleet capacity. The PRCS has not received its daily share of gasoline from the United Nations… pic.twitter.com/C9MRhdcWxl
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 27, 2024
Already Decreased Quantity
The PRCS pointed out that before the halt in receiving the allocated amount of gasoline, the quantity already decreased to only three percent of the daily requirement for ambulances.
“As a result, the PRCS warns of a decline in its ability to provide ambulance and emergency services in the coming days due to the fuel shortage, with the Israeli occupation continuing to keep the Rafah border crossing closed for about 52 days.”
The fuel quantities entering through the Karm Abu Salem crossing “do not meet the medical and relief sector’s needs.”
Palestinian Doctors, Hospitals and Health Care Workers are Primary Israeli Military Targets in Gaza
The PRCS appealed to the international community for urgent intervention to reopen the Rafah border crossing and allow the flow of humanitarian aid, especially fuel.
This is “to prevent the complete collapse of the healthcare system due to the cessation of hospital generators and further ambulance stoppages, as well as the total halt of water desalination plants and sewage networks.”
500 Healthcare Workers Killed
As of June 25, 500 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military assault began on October 7, the British charity Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP) said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This equates to an average of two healthcare workers killed every day, with one in every 40 healthcare workers, or 2.5% of Gaza’s healthcare workforce, now dead,” MAP said.
It added: “More healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since October than were reported killed in all conflicts globally in 2021 and 2022 combined.”
The 500th health worker reported killed was Hani Al Ja’afarwi, the Director of Emergency and Ambulance Services, during an Israeli military airstrike on a clinic in Gaza City on June 23, according to the organization.
‘Premeditated Crime’ – Israeli Airstrikes on UNRWA Facility, Clinic in Gaza Kills at Least Six
Over 37,000 Killed
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 37,765 Palestinians have been killed, and 86,429 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
