*🇵🇸Press release issued by the Ministry of Health – Gaza*
Developments of the continuous Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip for the fifth day.
1. One hundred twenty-two (122) Palestinians have so far confirmed killed, including 31 children and 20 women. Nine hundred (900) are wounded including 254 children and 168 women. Of these, there are 33 critical and 218 moderate injuries.
2. The Israeli occupation targeted entire families. Eight families were a apparently targeted, killing 26 civilians majority of whom are children and women.
3. the Israeli forces targeted densely populated residential areas, which may account for the large numbers of victims in the same family.
4. Threatening civilians and displacing them from their homes towards shelters creates a dangerous environment for the spread of COVID-19 and increases the burden on Gaza’s already exhausted health system.
5. Direct targeting of roads infrastructure and the periphery of health centres is considered as war crime where this act impede patients’ access to medical centers, in addition to the inability of medical teams reaching patients.
6. We call on the international community to provide full protection for health facilities, which have been directly targeted, as Hala Al Shawa Health Center, which Is completely destroyed, in addition to the partial damage of Beit Hanoun Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.
7. We request health and humanitarian institutions to provide the necessary supplies in the shelters to limit the spread of COVID-19.
8. The Israeli occupation closed the crossing points and halted fuel import for power plants that feed the hospitals of the strip, once again, affect the operating vital departments in hospitals, such as Operations theatres, ICU and nurseries.
9. We call for immediate action to open the ports for medical delegations, health supplies, and for referring the wounded abroad due to the overcrowded hospitals, as Al- Shifa medical complex have9 ICU beds, which now contains 17 critical cases.