Today, Sunday, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip revealed a new toll from the Israeli war that has been going on for more than 3 weeks, and confirmed that more hospitals have been out of service.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra announced - during a press conference - that the death toll from the Israeli bombing on the Gaza Strip had risen to 8,005 martyrs, including 3,324 children and 2,062 women, in addition to 20,242 wounded with various injuries.
Al-Qudra added that the Ministry of Health received 1,870 reports of missing persons, including 1,020 children still under the rubble.
The Palestinian spokesman also said that the collapse of the health system in the Gaza Strip is deepening day after day, confirming that 12 hospitals have been out of service and 32 care centers have stopped working.
Bodies in the streets
For its part, the Civil Defense in Gaza said that after communications were partially restored to the Strip on Sunday morning, bodies were found dumped in the streets and martyrs who could not be identified in several areas.
Pictures broadcast on social networking sites showed scattered bodies, their features obliterated as a result of the severe bombing of the Al-Rimal neighborhood in southern Gaza.
The Gaza Civil Defense spokesman said that hospitals had reached more than their maximum capacity, adding that some of the wounded were being treated on the ground.
He pointed out that there are a large number of martyrs under the rubble until this moment due to the difficulty of reaching them, calling for the introduction of Arab rescue teams to assist in search and rescue operations.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that, as a result of the lack of gasoline, a number of ambulances have stopped in Gaza, adding that only 27 ambulances are still in service until now.
He confirmed that he had received a threat from the Israeli occupation forces to evacuate Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza immediately because they would bomb it.
International organizations described the humanitarian conditions in Gaza as catastrophic due to the blockade that prevents the entry of fuel and basic materials, and the major destruction caused to infrastructure, including hospitals.
He continued that the priority is to bring in urgent medical aid so that the Ministry of Health teams can continue their work, calling for international measures to save the health system, in light of the Israeli threats.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza indicated that the occupancy rate in hospitals in the Gaza Strip reached 170%.
In an intervention with Al Jazeera, Al-Qudra stressed that the aid that has arrived so far is nothing but shrouds and bandages, and cannot in any way meet the needs of the health system.
He stressed that every delay in the arrival of medicines and medical equipment means the loss of more lives.
