Vital medical services have collapsed at Gaza's largest hospital still operating, Doctors Without Borders has warned
People inspect the damage caused by an artillery shell on the maternity hospital inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Gaza, on December 17, 2023. (Photo by Ahmed Hasaballah/Getty Images)
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that vital medical services have “collapsed” at Nasser Hospital, Gaza City's largest operational hospital.
“(Nasser) Hospital's surgical capacity is now almost non-existent, and the few medical staff present at the hospital have to deal with insufficient supplies to cope with mass casualty events and large influx of injured people,” he said. MSF said in a statement on Friday that at least one patient died on Wednesday due to the lack of an orthopedic surgeon.
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said access to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis for re-examination “remains a challenge”.
“Hundreds of patients and health workers have left,” he said in a statement on Friday. “There are currently 350 patients and 5,000 displaced people in the hospital.”
Earlier on Friday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said “shrapnel” was piercing the walls of its headquarters in the al-Amal hospital building in Khan Yunis, which the agency said was surrounded by Israeli tanks.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said Hamas was operating from inside al-Amal and Nasser hospitals. CNN could not independently verify those claims.
