FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 9, 2024
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‘Catastrophic Situation’ in Northern Gaza: Hospitals Ordered to Evacuate, MedGlobal Sounds Alarm

GAZA — As Israeli forces intensify their renewed assault on northern Gaza, the remaining healthcare facilities in the area are under siege and on the brink of collapse. Three hospitals have received orders to evacuate under direct threat from the Israeli military, leaving hundreds of patients, including children in intensive care, and 220 healthcare workers in limbo. 

MedGlobal, a leading humanitarian organization, provides free healthcare to approximately 3,000 patients in Gaza daily through 16 medical points and three malnutrition stabilization centers in addition to support in several hospitals with essential medical supplies and technology.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, is MedGlobal’s lead physician in Gaza. Last night he publicly shared the following statement: 

“For the past three days, the Israeli army has been sending messages demanding the evacuation of the hospital and the children. I was officially informed by the army in a threatening manner that the health system would be shut down, and that patients and hospital staff must evacuate, leaving the hospital empty without providing any services. This is a catastrophic situation.

I tried to explain to the army that this hospital provides vital humanitarian services for children. These are the only services available in Gaza and the northern part of the Strip, such as neonatal and intensive care. There are seven children on ventilators, and moving or transferring them would be extremely difficult. Our situation is extremely dire, as medicine, fuel, and even food have been prevented from reaching the northern region.”

Under international humanitarian law, hospitals and healthcare workers must be protected during wartime. However, the relentless bombing and sieges of civilian hospitals by Israeli forces over the past year have decimated the territory’s healthcare system, establishing a devastating and illegal pattern of attacks on medical spaces.

To discuss the targeting of the healthcare system in northern Gaza, leading members of MedGlobal’s Gaza team are available for interviews:

• Rajaa Musleh, MedGlobal’s Gaza country director, is intimately familiar with what Gazan healthcare workers have experienced since  10/7. She is currently traveling for advocacy meetings in Washington, D.C.
  
• Dr. Rana Soboh, MedGlobal’s nutrition technical advisor in northern Gaza, co-manages MedGlobal’s nutrition stabilization center inside Kamal Adwan Hospital. 

They can provide firsthand accounts of the desperate situation in Gaza as hospitals come under siege, and can discuss the immediate need for medical aid, safe passage for patients, and global action to protect healthcare facilities.

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MedGlobal is a humanitarian aid nonprofit organization that provides emergency response and health programs to build resilience among vulnerable communities around the world.