As part of the expansion of their ground operations, Israeli forces have issued widescale evacuation orders, further limiting people’s access to medical care and MSF’s ability to provide it. On 19 May, for example, an evacuation order covering almost the entire eastern part of Khan Younis, at the edge of Nasser hospital, forced people to immediately move towards Al-Mawasi area.
The Site Management Cluster estimates that over 138,900 people were forcibly displaced between 15-20 May. The intensified Israeli bombardments and evacuation orders across Khan Younis have forced MSF to maintain only lifesaving activities in the emergency rooms of Al-Attar and Al-Mawasi clinics. Since yesterday, Al-Hakker clinic, in Deir Al-Balah, has also been closed. Before that, MSF teams had been providing more than 350 consultations per day for paediatric, antenatal and post-natal care, psychological first aid and outpatient nutrition treatment among other things.
A few days earlier, on 15 May, Israeli authorities issued an evacuation order to Sheikh Radwan basic healthcare centre in Gaza City, which led to the closure of the facility. Before that, with MSF’s support, the Ministry of Health teams were providing around 3,000 consultations per day in an area with estimated 250,000 people. This was the last fully functional public basic healthcare clinic in the area.
According to the Ministry of Health, following the besiege of the Indonesian hospital, all public hospitals in North Gaza are now out of service. The MSF field hospital in Deir Al-Balah has seen its bed capacity rise to 150 per cent over the last few days, forcing us to add additional staff and increase our baseline by 20 beds. According to the UN, there are currently around 1,000 functional hospital beds across the Strip, while bed capacity before the war was 3,500.
Attacks on civilians and healthcare must stop now and aid must enter Gaza in sufficient quantities and in a way that allows it to reach those who need it. Israel’s allies must exert all their pressure to make this happen as a matter of extreme urgency. Every day that is lost reinforces their complicity in the annihilation of the people of Gaza.
