The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
GAZA: Hospital open spaces filled with makeshift graves, says WHO
The level of destruction in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip has shocked medical personnel from the World Health Organization (WHO), whose representatives said that no building or road had been left being intact in the city.
WHO staff made these comments on Friday after recent visits to the three medical facilities there – the Nasser Medical Complex, Al-Aqsa and Al-Khair hospitals -- following the withdrawal of Israeli troops. All facilities were found to be completely non-functional, with no oxygen supply, no water, no electricity and no working sewage systems.
In north Gaza, the Al-Shifa hospital also revealed a grim scenario. “It was shocking to realize that the hospital's open spaces were filled with makeshift graves for people that lost their lives there,” said Dr. Athanasios Gargavanis, a WHO surgeon for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, who spoke via videoconference to reporters at the UN in Geneva. “Some of them had their names on, some of them they had not their names on. And it was really shocking as well to be seeing that we had bodies that had been left uncovered or covered with a plastic sheet on the sides of the buildings.”
Dr. Gargavanis added that “Shifa Hospital used to be the biggest hospital along the Gaza Strip. It used to be the center of all specialties. Besides oncology, even if some of our level of oncology treatment was taken there. And unfortunately, what we saw when we went last week to Shifa is that the hospital has been turned into dust and rubble.”
Restoring even minimal functionality to the Al-Shifa hospital in the short term would seem impossible, according to the WHO. The hospital’s emergency department, surgical, and maternity ward buildings have been extensively damaged due to explosives and fire, and the oxygen plant has been destroyed. At least 115 beds in what once was the emergency department have been burned and 14 incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit destroyed.
A comprehensive assessment is essential to evaluate the functionality of vital equipment such as computer tomography scanners, ventilators, sterilization devices, and surgical equipment. “Before this war, Shifa was able to use electricity to deliver oxygen to the north. However, after this attack, the needs are escalating,” Dr. Gargavanis said. “We are working with all parties to make sure that we make available oxygen inside. However, in the recent past we have been denied multiple times oxygen tanks as possible dual use items by the Israeli authorities.”
WHO reports that their humanitarian operations continue to face denials of access. Between mid-October and end March, over half of all their missions have been denied, delayed, impeded or postponed by the Israeli authorities, they said.
“Nine thousand plus patients need to be urgently evacuated. So, you need a system for that. So there's a security screening both by the Israeli side and by the Egyptian side,” said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “We were off as W.H.O. already back in November to come up with a proposal, which we did and we were thinking of batches of 60 to 70 patients per day.”
WHO and partners are ready to support efforts to restore Al-Shifa and Nasser along with other hospitals, but this requires sustained access to get supplies and resources in, and for deconfliction measures to work.
“The deconfliction system has been consistently inaccurate and it hasn’t worked in our favor,” said Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the end of his three months assignment. “We have been saying for a long time to the Israelis, warning them that there is likely to be an incident which is going to come up and which is going to be a tragic one and it happened two weeks ago with the World Central Kitchen. We have said to them that the deconfliction system and the notification system are not fit for purpose and we have to revise those.”
Mr. McGoldrick added that “we need communications equipment, we need to get mobile phones, 3G, we have to get VHF repeaters, we have to get cell phones. All of the things we need, as we have in any other operation. This is an operation I've never seen the lack of communications equipment in a very hostile environment.” He said that he hoped that talks with Israeli Defense Forces would improve the situation and avert further disasters. “If there was to be a Rafah incursion,” he said, “I know the fact is that the mentioning of evacuating some 800,000 from Rafah, there is no space. And as we see it right now, in Al-Mawasi or anywhere else on the coast where you can accommodate that number because there's 400,000 plus people already there. So we are, you know, in an advocacy mode to say this shouldn't happen.”
-ends-
STORY: Gaza Update - OCHA, WHO
TRT: 3:33
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 12 April 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Exterior med shot: UN flag alley
- Wide shot: Press briefing room with journalists and speaker on screen
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “The deconfliction system has been consistently inaccurate and it hasn’t worked in our favor, to be honest with you. There have been so many incidents, we have been saying for a long time to the Israelis, warning them that there is likely to be an incident which is going to come up and which is going to be a tragic one and it happened two weeks ago with the World Central Kitchen. We have said to them that the deconfliction system and the notification system are not fit for purpose. We have to find and revising those.”
- Med shot: Moderator at the podium from behind with screen in front of them
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “We need communications equipment, we need to get mobile phones, 3G, we have to get VHF repeaters, we have to get cell phones. All of the things we need, as we have in any other operation. This is an operation I've never seen the lack of communications equipment in a very hostile environment.”
- Med shot: Camerawoman adjusting camera
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “If there was to be a Rafah incursion, I know the fact is that the mentioning of evacuating some 800,000 from Rafah, there is no space. And as we see it right now, in Al Mawasi or anywhere else on the coast where you can accommodate that number because there's 400,000 plus people already there. So we are, you know, in an advocacy mode to say this shouldn't happen.”
- Med shot: Spokespersons at the podium
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Dr. Athanasios Gargavanis, WHO surgeon for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “It was shocking to realize that the hospital's open spaces were filled with makeshift graves for people that lost their lives there. Some of them they had their names on, some of them they had not their names on. And it was really shocking as well to be seeing that we had bodies that had been left uncovered or covered with a plastic sheet on the sides of the buildings.”
- Wide shot, journalists in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Dr. Athanasios Gargavanis, WHO surgeon for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “Shifa Hospital used to be the biggest hospital along the Gaza Strip. It used to be the center of all specialties. Besides oncology, even if some of our level of oncology treatment was taken there. And unfortunately what we saw when we went last week to Shifa is that the hospital has been turned into dust and rubble.”
- Med shot: Camerawoman filming and technical staff working behind window
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Dr. Athanasios Gargavanis, WHO surgeon for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “Before this war, Shifa was able to use electricity to deliver oxygen to the north. However, after this attack, the needs are escalating. We are working with all parties to make sure that we make available oxygen inside. However, in the recent past we have been denied multiple times oxygen tanks as possible dual use items by the Israeli authorities.”
- Wide shot: Camerawoman filming, journalists in room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory: “9,000 plus patients need to be urgently evacuated. So, you need a system of that. So there's a security screening both by the Israeli side and by the Egyptian side. We were off as W.H.O. already back in November to come up with a proposal, which we did, and we were thinking of batches of 60 to 70 patients per day.”
- Wide shot: Speakers at the podium during press conference
- Med shot: Journalists during press conference
- Two shot: Journalists during press conference
- Wide shot: Camerawoman filming with screen of speaker in background
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The appointment on Thursday of Karla Quintana as head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic is a key development after nearly a year and a half of work by the UN Human Rights Office supporting the institution’s launch.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNICEF , UNRWA , WHO
The head of the UN migration agency stressed on Friday that Syria is in no position to take back millions of Syrians following the fall of the Assad regime, while there is an urgent need to “re-evaluate” sanctions impacting the war-ravaged country.
1
1
1
Edited News | IIIM , UNHCR
Syria: ‘Key priority’ is to preserve evidence of crimes – UN investigators
In Syria, new access to evidence of horrific human rights violations means that accountability may be closer than ever – if only proof can be preserved, a top UN investigator said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OSE , ICRC , UNHCR
Syria: UN and partners urge action to preserve evidence of prison atrocities, stabilize country
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria five days ago, hundreds of people have rushed to Saydnaya prison, desperate to find loved ones. Disturbing images from the prison and other detention centers have since surfaced, exposing the “unimaginable barbarity Syrians have endured for years,” said Jenifer Fenton, spokesperson for the UN special envoy for Syria, on Friday.
1
1
2
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: “Sickening normalisation” of suffering, amid attacks on people and aid convoys
Ongoing military operations by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza continue to devastate Palestinian children and families, with mounting casualties and a critical lack of humanitarian aid for the desperate population.
“Local media reporting here that last night, 30 people were killed in this area in strikes” said a senior emergency officer with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Louise Wateridge, speaking to reporters in Geneva from central Gaza.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Rights experts call for end to impunity for Israel’s violations of international law
Four independent human rights experts have jointly called for the international community to sanction Israel’s conduct of hostilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as in the wider Middle East region - including in Syria, Lebanon and Iran. They also called for the restoration of trust in the international justice system through the abandonment of “extreme interpretations” and “double standards” in the application of the universal norms regulating the conduct of war.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR
Syria: needs continue to grow amid highly uncertain situation, say aid teams
The historic power shift in Syria and the still volatile situation two days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime have increased humanitarian needs in a country where nearly 17 million people, including millions of internally displaced, already depended on humanitarian aid before the recent events, UN aid teams said on Tuesday.
2
1
3
Edited News , Press Conferences | OSES
Barely 48 hours since opposition forces including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swept into Damascus and forced out President Bashar al-Assad, the top UN negotiator tasked with helping Syrians’ create a peaceful and democratic future insisted that nothing could be taken for granted.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday called on States to do all in their power to end senseless conflicts and suffering.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
No evacuation order given before Kamal Adwan Hospital strike, says WHO
One of the last partially functional health centres in northern Gaza was reportedly hit again overnight into Friday by several strikes, leaving four health workers among the casualties and the dead, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | OCHA
More than 280,000 people have been uprooted in northwest Syria in a matter of days following the sudden and massive offensive into Government-controlled areas led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is sanctioned by the Security Council as a terrorist group.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has called on the Georgian authorities to respect and protect the rights to freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly following several nights of protests that were marred by violence, and dispersed using disproportionate, and in some cases unnecessary, force by the police in the capital, Tbilisi.