15,899 martyrs and more than 42,000 wounded in Gaza Strip

Occupied Al-Quds (ST) – The number of victims of the ongoing Israeli aggression on land, sea and air on the besieged Gaza Strip for the 59th day rose to 15899 martyrs and more than 42 thousand wounded.

The Palestinian Minister of Health stated on Monday that the Israeli occupation committed horrible massacres during the past few hours, claiming the lives of hundreds of martyrs and wounded, with 349 martyrs and 750 wounded arriving at hospitals.

This brings the number of victims of the ongoing aggression since the seventh of last October to 15,899, and the wounded to more than 42,000, most of whom are children and women, while the largest numbers of victims are still under the rubble.

The Ministry affirmed that the occupation deliberately kills and terrorizes the medical staff, the wounded, and the displaced in hospitals in Gaza and the north to force them into forced displacement.

The Israeli violations against the health system led to the martyrdom of 283 medical personnel, the wounding of hundreds, the removal of 20 hospitals and 46 primary care centers from service, and the complete destruction of 56 health institutions and 56 ambulances.

The Ministry pointed out that the occupation still has under arrest 35 health personnel from the Strip, including the director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, and it is exercising the worst types of torture and abuse against them in tragic detention conditions.

The Ministry indicated that all hospitals are overcrowded with the number of wounded, which has exceeded their medical capabilities and capacity, and suffering from the lack of various surgical supplies and burn treatment.

It stressed that more than 1.5 million displaced people in shelter centers, especially pregnant women, children, chronic patients, and the wounded, are exposed to slow death.

The ministry renewed its call for the UN to activate the international and humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect hospitals and health and humanitarian personnel and to criminalize their targeting.

It also called on all parties to provide a safe humanitarian corridor that guarantees the entry of medical supplies and fuel and the exit of hundreds of wounded, stressing the necessity of sending field hospitals with capacity and large medical equipment to reach all areas of Gaza Strip.

Najla Khoury