No functioning hospitals left in northern Gaza — WHO

The World Health Organization has said that northern Gaza has been left without a functional hospital due to a lack of fuel, staff and supplies.

"There are actually no functional hospitals left in the north," Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters on Thursday via video link from Jerusalem.

"Al Ahli (Hospital) was the last one but it is now minimally functional: still treating patients but not admitting new ones."

Only nine out of 36 health facilities were partially functional in the whole of Gaza, according to the WHO. All these facilities are concentrated in the enclave's south.

Describing it as a "shell of a hospital", Peeperkorn said Al Ahli resembled a hospice providing very limited care. About 10 staff, all junior doctors and nurses, continue to provide basic first aid, pain management and wound care with scant resources, he said.

"Until two days ago, it was the only hospital where injured people could get surgery in northern Gaza and that was overwhelmed with patients needing emergency care," he said.

More than 20 Al Ahli hospital staff were arrested on Monday, Peeperkorn noted and said that six were released and forced to move to the south.

No safe, dignified burials

"There are no operating theatres anymore due to the lack of fuel, power, medical supplies and health workers, including surgeons and other specialists."

The bodies of victims from recent Israeli attacks were lined up in the hospital's courtyard because they could not be given safe and dignified burials, he said.

In addition to Al Ahli Hospital, northern Gaza had only three other minimally functioning health facilities: Al Shifa, Al Awda and Al Sahaba hospitals, which Peeperkorn said were sheltering thousands of displaced people.

Some patients at Al Ahli had been waiting for surgeries for weeks or if they had been operated on, they faced the risk of a post-operation infection due to lack of antibiotics and other drugs, he added.

"All these patients cannot move and need to be transferred urgently to have a chance to survive," he said, reiterating the WHO's call for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Hospital occupancy rates reach 206% in South

Peeperkorn stressed that two major hospitals in southern Gaza are operating at "three times" their bed capacity.

Meanwhile, overall occupancy rates are now reaching 206 percent in inpatient departments and 250 percent in ICUs, in addition to providing shelter to thousands of internally displaced people, he said.

"This is needed now to reinforce and restock remaining health facilities, deliver medical services needed by thousands of injured people and those needing other essential care, and, above all, to stop the bloodshed and death."

Regarding the attacks against health care, he said that as of Wednesday, 246 attacks occurred in Gaza, resulting in 582 fatalities and 748 injuries. The attacks have affected 61 health care facilities and 76 ambulances, he added.