GAZA (Dispatches) – At least 10,000 Palestinians require medical evacuation from Gaza, the spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), Christian Lindmeier, says.
“The organization has evacuated four children along with their escorts through Egypt to Belgium, but the operation is ongoing, and precise numbers cannot be provided at this moment,” Lindmeier said in a press conference.
Lindmeier noted that the WHO would release the necessary data upon the completion of the evacuation process.
Medical evacuations have almost entirely stopped since May 6 when the Zionist regime invaded Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, took over the crossing between the enclave and Egypt and raised the occupying regime’s flag over it.
The entry of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians has been hindered even further by occupation authorities since.
The developments come the WHO spokesperson said on Tuesday it is very likely that polio has infected people in the Gaza Strip, in what would be a setback for global efforts to eradicate the disease.
Gaza’s health ministry declared a polio epidemic across the Palestinian enclave late on Monday after samples of the virus were found in sewage. It has not announced any human cases.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has also reported an outbreak of hepatitis across the Gaza Strip amid relentless Israeli attacks on the enclave. UNRWA said that nearly 40,000 cases of hepatitis have been recorded in Gaza since the start of the Israeli war on 7 October last year,” reported Anadolu.
“Eight hundred to 1,000 new hepatitis cases are reported weekly from UNRWA health centers and shelters across Gaza,” said the UN agency. “Desperate sanitary conditions facilitate the spread of diseases including Hepatitis A.”
Hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have been targeted systematically by the Zionist occupation forces. At least 39,400 Palestinians have been killed, mostly children and women, and 91,000 others have been wounded.