Gaza, September 27 (QNA) - Director of Medical Relief in the Gaza Strip Dr. Mohammad Abu Afesh revealed that Israeli occupation forces have ordered all health and medical institutions, along with their staff, to immediately evacuate Gaza City, which is currently witnessing an intensified military operation and relentless airstrikes across its neighborhoods.

Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Abu Afesh warned that the shutdown of health institutions in Gaza City, especially international ones, would deal a devastating blow to an already crippled healthcare system, ravaged by systematic targeting and destruction since the onset of what he described as a genocidal war.

Despite mounting threats and the blockade on medical supplies, Abu Afesh affirmed that Medical Relief will continue its operations in Gaza City. He noted that Israeli forces committed a compounded crime by destroying the organization’s main headquarters on Omar Al Mukhtar Street in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, as well as another facility in Tel Al Hawa in the southern part of the city.

He further stated that nearly 1,600 humanitarian and medical workers have been killed since the beginning of the war on Gaza, calling for international accountability for Israel’s crimes against medical personnel and institutions.

Abu Afesh pointed out that intense Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza has forced the closure of four hospitals since the beginning of the month, halting services for thousands of wounded and sick individuals whose numbers continue to rise due to the ongoing military campaign.

He stressed that forced evacuation orders, mass displacement, excessive use of firepower through aerial and artillery bombardment, and the detonation of armored vehicles in residential areas have severely impacted on essential health facilities in Gaza City. Many have been evacuated, while others have ceased functioning due to the blockade, mobility restrictions on staff, and direct targeting of facilities or their surroundings.

Abu Afesh reported that over 15,000 injured and ill individuals require urgent medical evacuation and access to proper treatment, yet evacuation efforts remain painfully slow and insufficient given the scale of casualties, especially as the assault on Gaza City intensifies.

He urged all international and UN bodies to take immediate action to enforce a ceasefire in Gaza and ensure unrestricted access for medical teams to support what remains of the healthcare system and prevent its total collapse.

Gaza’s health sector is facing a suffocating crisis, with continued restrictions on the entry of medicines and medical supplies, ongoing targeting of medical personnel through killings and arrests, and the systematic destruction of major hospitals amid the escalating Israeli aggression on the besieged enclave. (QNA)