KUALA LUMPUR: Northern Gaza's medical facilities are facing extreme pressure from ongoing Israeli airstrikes as many healthcare workers have left, leaving those who stayed in dire and life-threatening situations, says Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Its medical coordinator for Palestine, Guillemette Thomas said that the evacuation order issued by the Israeli authorities had forced people to make extremely difficult choices between staying and leaving.
This, he said, meant that health workers had to choose between abandoning their patients to an almost certain death or staying and risking their own lives.
"The harrowing situation in Gaza's medical facilities has taken a devastating toll on healthcare workers and patients, as Israeli strikes continue to rock the region.
"Despite the majority of medical personnel fleeing to the relative safety of southern Gaza, those who remain face severe constraints, such as limited access to electricity and water, amidst a debilitating siege.
"Some courageous individuals have opted to remain, providing support to the Ministry of Health teams, particularly at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where MSF had been offering care for burn victims for years.
He said, these workers tragically share the same fate as other Gazans, losing their lives since the onset of the Israeli offensive.
Thomas also said that Gaza's healthcare system was teetering on collapse as medical staff face difficulties in providing care and accepting new patients due to a lack of personnel, drugs, and medical equipment.
"Patients suffering from complex trauma wounds, burns, fractures, and crushed limbs are overwhelming healthcare facilities. Al-Shifa hospital, the primary medical centre in Gaza, has become a shelter for thousands seeking refuge from the constant bombings.
"Yet, its limited fuel reserves will last at most another 24 hours."
Therefore, he added that regular ceasefires must be guaranteed for medicines and fuel to be brought in on a massive scale.
"If we run out of anaesthetic drugs, surgeons will be forced to stop operations.
"Immediate humanitarian support is also needed for the one million displaced people.
"They need access to water and sanitation, as well as basic healthcare, before their health deteriorates dramatically," he said.