Nasser Hospital in Gaza is operating as ‘one massive trauma ward’ due to an influx of patients wounded at non-United Nations food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
The US- and Israeli-backed GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of deliveries that the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It has repeatedly denied that incidents involving people killed or wounded at its sites have occurred.
Referring to medical staff at the Nasser Hospital, Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, told reporters in Geneva: “They’ve seen already for weeks, daily injuries ... (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites. The is now operating as one massive trauma ward.”
Hundreds of patients, mainly young boys, were being treated for traumatic injuries, including bullet wounds to the head, chest and knees, according to the WHO.
Peeperkorn said health workers at Nasser Hospital and testimonies from family members and friends of those wounded confirmed that the victims had been trying to access aid at sites run by the GHF.
&uuid=(email))