[News] Palestine Ministry of Health - Muslim Holy Days Marred by Gaza Genocide

Wed Jul 30 11:12:13 EDT 2014

  Ministry of Health: Muslim Holy Days Marred by Gaza Genocide

author Wednesday July 30, 2014 00:18
*http://www.imemc.org/article/68665*

Gaza's hospitals face new crisis

    As hospitals now face an increasingly dire situation in the Gaza
    Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has issued a number of
    statements in regard, in addition to further addressing the
    atrocities inflicted upon the people of Gaza by Israel during the
    holy month of the Ramadan fast.

*-------------------- Official Press Release 07/29/14*

The Ministry of Health Gaza is pained to express its deep sadness and 
outrage at the Israeli attacks on Gaza on our holy days of Eid al-Fitr.

In the last 24 hours, 120 people have been killed, bringing the total to 
1,156.

Particularly distressing was the death in Al Bureij refugee camp of 
Diana Abu Jaber and her unborn baby only a week before his estimated 
date of delivery.

Diana's home was struck by an F-16 airstrike.

"As it collapsed a concrete pillar fell on her," reported Dr Kamal 
Khatab, Medical Superintendent of Al Aqsa Hospital. "A shell ripped her 
abdomen open, the unborn baby fell out and was hit in the head with 
shrapnel, and his brain matter was extruded. Both mother and baby died 
immediately."

Dr Khatab added that Diana, in her mid-twenties, was one of 19 members 
of the same family to die in that airstrike, and there are still other 
family members missing.

The entrance to the Outpatient Clinic of Shifa Hospital in Gaza city was 
shelled yesterday afternoon, bringing the number of attacks on medical 
facilities to 34. Windows in the Medical Library were shattered, an 
exterior wall was partially destroyed, and several trees were severely 
damaged. It is pure good fortune that none of the displaced people 
sheltering in the outpatients area, or staff working in the library, 
were killed or injured.

"There is a deliberate strategy of attacking to kill Palestinians in two 
ways -- one in their homes with bombs and bullets, and the other by 
depriving them of essential medical services," observed Deputy Minister 
of Health Dr Yousef Abu Al-Rish.

Israeli airstrikes before dawn on the sole Gaza power plant destroyed 
fuel tanks, and put the plant out of production. This will have an 
immense impact on the provision of services in Gaza's hospitals, and 
significantly contribute to a looming humanitarian disaster in the Gaza 
Strip.

Despite numerous appeals by both Palestinian and international 
organisations to cease attacks on children and women, to cease attacks 
on medical facilities, and to cease attacks on civilian infrastructure 
Israeli military strikes on civilian targets have not abated.

The Ministry of Health Gaza calls on the United Nations, the 
international community, human rights organisations, and all people of 
good conscience wherever they may be to act immediately to stop the 
genocide in Gaza.

In the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, "If you are neutral in situations 
of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

*Press Release 07/29/14 ---------------------------------------------*

/Gaza Ministry of Health, Palestine/

Eid al fitr. The end of Ramadan, the end of the fast. New clothes, lots 
of sweets, family visits. Celebrations of life and love.

Not in Gaza. Instead, Israelis delivered a hefty dose of death and 
destruction in al-Shati Camp, splitting families and bodies alike.

Two adults and eight children killed as they rode the Ferris wheel or in 
a TukTuk in the park, over 40 injured, one of whom has since died.

This barbaric and deliberate attack on children in a public place on one 
of the two most significant Muslim holy days seals the Israeli 
reputation as one of the most perverse war criminals imaginable. Many 
considered the calculated murder of the four children playing football 
on the beach on July 16, 2014 to be an atrocity and a clear war crime -- 
nine more dead children in al-Shati's park is an even more gross excess.

And still the international community does nothing.

How many more young lives must be stolen before the world says "Enough!"

How many more before the United Nations (UN) enforces international law 
without fear or favour, and demands the rogue 'state' of Israel comply 
with international law?

When will the UN impose sanctions, and an arms embargo, to prevent the 
Israeli enabler, the United States, from furnishing it with the tools of 
death? From financing the pathological Zionist expansionist project?

When will the UN expel this rogue 'state' from amongst its ranks -- this 
rogue 'state' that claims all the benefits of UN membership but scorns 
each and every responsibility incumbent upon it to act with even the 
barest modicum of civilised behaviour or humanity?

For the United Nations to remain silent now is for it to be complicit in 
these war crimes.

*---------------------------------------- Press Release 07//27/14*

/Gaza Ministry of Health, Palestine/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

/Gaza's hospitals confront new crisis/
Hospitals in Gaza are confronting a new crisis, as patients ready for 
discharge are unable to leave, taking up hospital beds urgently required 
for the incoming wounded.

The situation for many of these patients is dire: either their families 
have been killed or there is no-one to care for them, their homes have 
been destroyed, or they live in areas under Israeli orders to evacuate 
and are under threat of being shot if they return.

Several attacks on UNRWA schools serving as shelters for displaced 
persons have left these already traumatised and still-vulnerable victims 
too distrustful to accept them as a discharge option. In addition, the 
over-crowded and under-resourced conditions in the shelters are an 
unsuitable environment for the recuperating injured, with limited water, 
hygiene and electricity supplies. Scores of such patients are in Shifa 
Hospital alone, and because of the specialist services it offers, they 
come from all governates in the Gaza Strip.

"From the human point of view we can't force them out," said Chief 
Surgeon and Medical Director of Shifa Hospital Dr Sobhi Skaik. "A 
patient is not just a medical problem, their social and economic aspects 
are also important. The medical staff are always trying to work with the 
patients to find solutions."

Dr Skaik said the situation is complicated by the fact that there are 
often several members of the same family hospitalised, with one in the 
paediatric ward, one in ICU, another in the orthopaedic ward, another in 
neurosurgery, while other family members are camped in the hospital 
grounds to be near them or because their homes have been destroyed.

"The hospital grounds have become like a refugee camp," he said. "The 
conditions are deteriorating, with rubbish piling up -- it is quite 
dirty and unsanitary, and we cannot discharge our patients into those 
conditions."

The Ministry of Health Gaza considers that the minimal requirements for 
displaced patients ready for discharge are facilities that have beds 
with bedcovers, water for washing, adequate toilet facilities, and food 
and drink. They should also be maintained to a standard of cleanliness 
conducive to wound healing and infection control.

The Ministry of Health Gaza calls on UNRWA and the International 
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to immediately ensure the provision of 
dedicated and adequately-resourced "Recovery Centres" that meet the 
above criteria, where displaced patients ready for discharge from Gaza's 
hospitals can continue to recuperate from their injuries in a safe and 
sanitary environment, thus releasing their hospital beds for more urgent 
cases.

/Contacts:
Dr Yousef AbuAlrish, Deputy Minister of Health: +972 597 918 339

Dr Medhat Abbas, Director General, Ministry of Health: +972 599 403 547
/

<mailto:chris%20at%20imemc%20dot%20org>
Related Link(s): 
http://imemc.org/newswire?search_text=ministry+of+healt...3E%3E 
<http://imemc.org/newswire?search_text=ministry+of+health&button=Search+%3E%3E>
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20140730/596be9b3/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: date.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 114 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20140730/596be9b3/attachment.gif>