Gaza's humanitarian, medical situation reached worst stage: Doctors Without Borders

GENEVA

Gaza has reached the worst humanitarian and medical situation that we can imagine, with patients everywhere and no proper medicines to treat them, said a medical activities manager with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the Gaza Strip.

“The general situation Gaza Strip is very bad. The health situation in the Gaza Strip is disastrous,” Ahmad Abu Warda, medical activities manager at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, told Anadolu.

He explained that hospitals in Gaza, which are still partially operational, are struggling to cope with high patient numbers, service gaps, and medical supply shortages.

“Patients are everywhere, in the corridors and on the ground, without even a hospital bed. Patients have to bring even their own mattresses from home to be admitted to the hospitals and to receive the services,” he said.

Warda emphasized the widespread lack of medical supplies in Gaza, noting that both injured and chronic patients are unable to obtain medications.

“We are struggling with all the aspects of the health care system in the Gaza Strip nowadays; every day is worse than the day before. Everyone in the health system in the Gaza Strip is struggling,” he emphasized.

Highlighting the dire situation at Nasser Hospital, the largest functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip, Warda said it is receiving three to four times more patients than it can handle.

‘You can’t even breathe inside the emergency room’

“The emergency department in Nasser Hospital doesn't stop. The influx of patients does not stop. So, if you go to the emergency department, even if you cannot take a breath there inside,” Warda said. “You can smell the blood everywhere in the emergency department of Nasser Hospital.”

He described Israel's evacuation order for Gaza City as tragic, pointing out that a large portion of the population resides there and has nowhere else to go.

“Now, with those evacuation orders and increasing the explosions and targeting there. It puts more burden on the medical teams there and on the population themselves,” he said, emphasizing that the residents are “desperate” and that it is unacceptable for Israel to issue an evacuation order for the entire city when there is no safe place for them to go.

Warda added that attacks on Gaza City continue, and patients do not know where to go. "Even the injured people, they don't know where to go," he said, noting that many patients have to wait weeks or even months for the surgical care they require due to the ongoing attacks.