The ongoing violence in Gaza has led to over 96,000 injuries, with approximately 8,000 individuals requiring amputations, according to the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
Isabelle Defourny, a physician and president of MSF, who recently returned from a mission in Gaza, stated during a press conference on Thursday that “up to 8,000 people in Gaza are now amputees, with 15% in need of rehabilitation care.”
Defourny highlighted that basic living conditions in the Gaza Strip “are not being met” and warned that the authorities “continue to obstruct the delivery of aid to the region, making it difficult for humanitarian agencies to operate.” She also noted that 12,000 individuals in Gaza require medical evacuation.
In a statement released on its website this Thursday, MSF reported that its medical staff has treated over 27,500 patients for violence-related injuries, with more than 80 per cent of the wounds linked to shelling. “Israeli bombardments of densely populated areas have repeatedly caused injuries on a massive scale. Our teams have been forced to perform surgeries without anaesthesia, witness children die on hospitals floors due to a lack of resources, and even treat their own colleagues and family members,” explained Amber Alayyan, MSF’s medical program manager, as cited in the statement.
Currently, MSF indicates that only 17 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially operational. Since October 2023, MSF staff and patients have had to evacuate 14 different healthcare facilities due to serious incidents.
The lack of access to healthcare is further compounded by the dearth of humanitarian supplies in Gaza. The NGO noted in its statement that the authorities “have routinely imposed unclear, unpredictable criteria for authorizing the entry of supplies. Once supplies cross into the Gaza Strip, they often do not make it to their destination, due to an absence of safe and accessible roads.”
