‘Health Catastrophe’ – Medical Centers in Khan Yunis Shut Down following Evacuation Orders

Israel continues to carry out massacres against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.(Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Several primary care centers and medical points in Khan Yunis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, have been shut down following evacuation orders from the Israeli army, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian enclave reported on Saturday.

“Due to the increasing number of forcibly evacuated areas in southern Gaza, several primary health care centers are now out of service,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry expressed concern that the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, the only hospital still operational despite numerous challenges, might also shut down, leading to a “certain health catastrophe.”

It highlighted that “the increasing number of displaced persons living without access to water and amidst sewage and piled-up waste, without personal hygiene supplies, creates conditions ripe for the spread of polio and other diseases.”

According to the latest statistics from the media office in Gaza, over 1.7 million displaced persons have contracted infectious diseases due to displacement and overcrowding.

The ministry urged international and UN organizations to quickly intervene to protect the remaining health institutions and provide necessary resources and supplies.

Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli army ordered the immediate evacuation from southern parts of Khan Younis, a week after issuing an evacuation order for eastern parts of Khan Younis and beginning a new ground invasion.

New Massacres

Medical sources told Al-Jazeera that at least 46 Palestinians were killed due to the continued Israeli bombardment of various areas in the central and southern Gaza Strip since Saturday morning. 

Israeli forces bombed the Ahmed al-Kurd School, adjacent to Khadija School in Deir al-Balah, with renewed raids west of the city of Deir al-Balah, Al-Jazeera reported.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that at least 31 Palestinians were killed and over 100 injured, including serious cases, in the Israeli raid, which also targeted a field hospital inside Khadija School.

Khalil al-Daqran, spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, told Al-Jazeera that most of the wounded who arrived at the hospital were children. 

He added that many of the injured suffered from severe burns, indicating the use of internationally prohibited missiles and shells by the occupation. 

Two people, including a child, were killed by an Israeli bombardment targeting a motorcycle in the town of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Yunis.

Additionally, the bodies of five Palestinians were recovered following a bombing that targeted a house in Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on Friday.

Ambulance crews also recovered the bodies of five Palestinians following an airstrike that targeted the home of the Al-Masry family in the Musabbah area, north of Rafah city. A number of others were also injured in the attack.

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Medical sources said that the bodies of 14 Palestinians arrived at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis on Saturday morning. 

A child died in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah due to dehydration and malnutrition, Al-Jazeera reported. 

Moreover, five people, including three children, were killed in a bombing that targeted a house in the town of Al-Zawaida in central Gaza. 

On Saturday morning, Israeli vehicles opened fire with machine guns at the tents of the displaced in the southern areas of Khan Yunis.

Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza. 

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, 39,258 Palestinians have been killed, and 90,589 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

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’. 

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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.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(PC, Anadolu)

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