Gaza – Together – Doctors Without Borders said on Friday that it is facing a severe shortage of medicines and basic medical equipment in the Gaza Strip, and that it may be ‘forced to stop or reduce’ some of its medical activities in Gaza.
The international organization said, in a statement, that since the end of last April, it has been unable to bring any medical supplies into the Strip, which has been subjected to a devastating Israeli war for about 9 months.
The statement explained that the closure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt following the Israeli attack on the southern Gaza Strip, on May 6, greatly obstructed the flow of humanitarian aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing (south).
For her part, the organization’s coordinator in Palestine, Guimet Touma, said, ‘Medical supplies are very few due to the limited aid that the Israeli authorities allow to enter Gaza,’ according to the statement.
She added, “If we are unable to bring medical supplies to Gaza soon, we may be forced to stop our medica
l activities. This is a reality that we refuse to imagine, given the dire medical needs of thousands of people in Gaza.”
Touma explained that there are “patients suffering from severe burns and open fractures, and we (Doctors Without Borders) do not even have enough painkillers to alleviate their suffering.”
She continued, “Our teams in Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals were forced to reduce the number of times they changed bandages for patients suffering from severe burns due to the lack of sterile gauze, which could lead to more infected wounds.”
The statement explained that with 75% of Gaza’s population displaced and forced to live in horrific conditions, MSF teams have witnessed an increase in the number of patients suffering from skin diseases such as scabies over the past month, while the stock of medicines needed to treat them is dangerously declining.
He stressed that in Khan Yunis (south), the organization was unable to provide general medical consultations for several days at the Al-Attar Health Care
Center, which it recently opened, due to the lack of supplies and medicines necessary to manage activities.
Source: Maan News Agency