<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#CCFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="article">
<h1 class="article-title"><small>Ministry of Health: Muslim Holy
Days Marred by Gaza Genocide</small></h1>
<div class="article-subtitledetails">
<span class="article-details">
<span class="article-detail"><img class="icon"
src="cid:part1.00080008.09050209@freedomarchives.org"
alt="author"> Wednesday July 30, 2014 00:18</span><span
class="article-detail"><br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.imemc.org/article/68665">http://www.imemc.org/article/68665</a></small></small></b><br>
</span></span></div>
<p class="article-subtitle">Gaza's hospitals face new crisis</p>
<blockquote class="article-intro">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.</blockquote>
<p class="article"><b>-------------------- Official Press Release
07/29/14</b><br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
In the last 24 hours, 120 people have been killed, bringing the
total to 1,156.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Diana’s home was struck by an F-16 airstrike.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
In the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, “If you are neutral in
situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the
oppressor.”<br>
<br>
<b>Press Release 07/29/14
---------------------------------------------</b><br>
<br>
<i>Gaza Ministry of Health, Palestine</i><br>
<br>
Eid al fitr. The end of Ramadan, the end of the fast. New
clothes, lots of sweets, family visits. Celebrations of life and
love.<br>
<br>
Not in Gaza. Instead, Israelis delivered a hefty dose of death
and destruction in al-Shati Camp, splitting families and bodies
alike.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
And still the international community does nothing.<br>
<br>
How many more young lives must be stolen before the world says
“Enough!”<br>
<br>
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?<br>
<br>
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?<br>
<br>
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?<br>
<br>
For the United Nations to remain silent now is for it to be
complicit in these war crimes.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>---------------------------------------- Press Release
07//27/14</b><br>
<br>
<i>Gaza Ministry of Health, Palestine</i><br>
<br>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br>
<br>
<i>Gaza’s hospitals confront new crisis</i><br>
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.<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<i>Contacts:<br>
Dr Yousef AbuAlrish, Deputy Minister of Health: +972 597 918
339 <br>
<br>
Dr Medhat Abbas, Director General, Ministry of Health: +972
599 403 547<br>
</i> </p>
<div class="article-details">
<span class="article-details">
<span class="article-detail"><br>
</span><span class="article-detail"><a
href="mailto:chris%20at%20imemc%20dot%20org"></a></span></span>
</div>
<div class="article-related-link-relatedlink">Related Link(s): <a
href="http://imemc.org/newswire?search_text=ministry+of+health&button=Search+%3E%3E"
title="http://imemc.org/newswire?search_text=ministry+of+health&button=Search+%3E%3E">http://imemc.org/newswire?search_text=ministry+of+healt...3E%3E</a></div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>