GENEVA: The World Health Organization reported on Tuesday, citing local medical personnel, that newborn mortality is rapidly increasing in the Gaza Strip and that underweight newborns are being born there.
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris stated during a briefing in Geneva, “From different doctors, particularly in the maternity hospitals, they’re reporting that they’re seeing a big rise in children born with low birth weight, and just not surviving the neonatal period because they’re born too small.”
According to her, “at least 15 malnourished children are coming in per day, and the needs are just getting ever more severe” at Kamal Adwan, the only pediatric hospital in northern Gaza.
According to Harris, many people do not even make it to hospitals, and the destruction inflicted on Palestinian territory after six months of Israeli attack makes it impossible for the WHO to compile accurate figures on child death.
Citing a stabilization center that was established just last week, she stated that most of the inpatients were kids who suffered from both malnourishment and medical conditions.
“The most urgent patients are those who have underlying conditions because malnutrition will kill them much faster,” the speaker stated.
Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was abandoned by the Israeli army on Monday following a two-week military offensive that left most of the facility in rubble and corpses strewn across the dusty grounds.
It was the largest hospital in the Palestinian territories.
In a WHO video shot on the site, acting director Marwaan Abu Saadah declared, “Al Shifa Medical Complex is gone forever.”
“It can no longer operate as a hospital in any way,” Harris continued. She stated, “Destroying Al Shifa means ripping the heart out of the health system,” pointing out that it was a sizable hospital with 30 intensive care units, 25 operating rooms, and 750 beds.
