Latest news with #MuneerAlboursh
Middle East Eye
2 days ago
- Health
- Middle East Eye
Number of starved Palestinians in Gaza rises to 201
The number of Palestinians who have starved to death as a result of Israel's siege on Gaza has risen to 201, with most being children, Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza health ministry, told Aljazeera on Friday.
CBC
09-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
Fuel shortage threatens to turn Gaza's biggest hospital into graveyard, doctors say
Overwhelmed doctors and patients at Gaza's largest medical centre could soon be plunged into darkness because of dwindling fuel supplies, which doctors say threaten to paralyze Al Shifa hospital as Israel presses on with its military campaign. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, Al Shifa's patients faced imminent danger, doctors there said. The threat comes from "neither an airstrike nor a missile — but a siege choking the entry of fuel," Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, told Reuters. The shortage is "depriving these vulnerable people of their basic right to medical care, turning the hospital into a silent graveyard," he said. Israeli airstrikes and relentless bombardment have taken a heavy toll on hospitals in Gaza, a tiny strip of land which was under a long, Israeli-led blockade before the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted 21 months ago. Palestinians and medical workers have accused the Israeli military of attacking hospitals, allegations it rejects. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from medical facilities and running command centres underneath them, something Hamas denies. Patients in need of medical care, food and water are paying the price. Gaza's health sector 'on its knees' There have been more than 600 attacks on health facilities since the conflict began, the WHO says, without attributing blame. It has described the health sector in Gaza as being "on its knees," with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties. Just half of Gaza's 36 general hospitals are partially functioning, according to the UN agency. Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiyah, Al Shifa's director, warned of a humanitarian catastrophe due to a fuel crisis posing a direct threat to hospital operations, desalination plants and the water supply system. 'Like an animal pen': Amnesty International slams Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution 4 days ago Duration 8:27 According to a new Amnesty International report, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a U.S.- and Israel-backed group that took over aid distribution in Gaza over a month ago — uses a militarized aid mechanism that enables Israel to use starvation as a weapon of war and inflict genocide against Palestinians. Budour Hassan of Amnesty International says those on the ground describe acquiring aid as a 'harrowing' endeavour. Read more: He accused Israel of "trickle-feeding" fuel to Gaza's hospitals. COGAT, the Israeli military aid co-ordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fuel shortages at Gaza's medical facilities and the risk to patients. Oxygen risk Abu Salamiyah said Al Shifa's dialysis department had been shut down to protect the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which can't be without electricity for even a few minutes. There are around 100 premature babies in Gaza City hospitals whose lives are at serious risk, he said. "Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil," Abu Salamiyah said, adding that the hospital could become "a graveyard for those inside." Officials at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis are also wondering how they will cope with the fuel crisis. The hospital needs 4,500 litres of fuel per day and it now has only 3,000 litres, enough for 24 hours, said hospital spokesperson Mohammed Sakr. Doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning. The sweat from staff is dripping into patients' wounds, he said. "You can have the best hospital staff on the planet, but if they are denied the medicines and the painkillers and now the very means for a hospital to have light ... it becomes an impossibility," said James Elder, a spokesperson for UN children's agency UNICEF recently returned from Gaza. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza's Health Ministry says Israel's response has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced almost all Gaza's population and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
NZ Herald
24-05-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Gaza doctors' nine children killed in Israeli strike, investigation ongoing
Footage of the aftermath released by the Civil Defence agency showed rescuers recovering badly burned remains from the damaged home. The Israeli military said it had 'struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure' near its troops. 'The Khan Yunis area is a dangerous warzone. The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.' The army had issued an evacuation warning for the city on Monday. The children's funeral took place at Nasser Hospital, AFP footage showed. Muneer Alboursh, director general of the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, said on X that the strike happened shortly after Hamdi Al-Najjar returned home from driving his wife to work. 'This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,' he said, accusing Israel of 'wiping out entire families'. Fresh strikes Bassal told AFP that Israeli strikes killed at least 15 people on Saturday across Gaza. He said the dead included a couple who were killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of Khan Yunis. To the west of the city, at least five people were killed by a drone strike on a crowd that had gathered to wait for aid trucks, he added. At Nasser Hospital, tearful mourners gathered Saturday around white-shrouded bodies outside. 'Suddenly, a missile from an F-16 destroyed the entire house, and all of them were civilians - my sister, her husband and their children,' said Wissam Al-Madhoun. 'What did this child do to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu?' The military said that over the past day the air force had struck more than 100 targets across the territory. Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire. Gaza's health ministry said Saturday that at least 3747 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war's overall toll to 53,901, mostly civilians. 'Attempt to sow panic' United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Palestinians were enduring 'the cruellest phase' of the war in Gaza, where Israel's lengthy blockade has led to widespread shortages of food and medicine. Limited aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2. The Gaza City municipality, meanwhile, warned Saturday of 'a potential large-scale water crisis' because of a lack of supplies needed to repair damaged infrastructure. Hamas' October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. Demonstrators gathered yet again in Tel Aviv on Saturday night for their regular protest calling for the captives' freedom, carrying a giant banner that read 'Save the hostages, end the war'. 'We want the war to end now because we see... that the war will not lead to the release of the hostages, and that it will bring more death, more misery on both sides,' demonstrator Jonathan Adereth told AFP. Early Saturday morning (local time), Israel's National Cyber Directorate said it had received 'numerous inquiries' about citizens 'receiving phone calls in which recordings are played featuring the voice of a hostage, sounds of explosions and screams'. Israeli media said the calls featured audio apparently taken from a video of hostage Yosef Haim Ohana published by Hamas this month. 'This is an attempt to sow panic and confusion among the public,' the directorate said of the calls, adding 'the matter is under investigation'.
New York Times
04-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Israel's Total Blockade of Gaza Has Created ‘Catastrophic' Conditions, Doctors Say
It has been more than 60 days since Israel ordered a halt to all humanitarian aid entering Gaza — no food, fuel or even medicine. As the phone calls pour in, Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza's health ministry, is running out of answers. The longer Israel's total siege of the enclave grinds on, the more doctors call to ask where they can find medicine to keep patients alive. Some patients call him up themselves — people with treatable heart problems or kidney failure — to ask: If there is no medicine, what else can they try? 'There's no advice I can give them,' he said. 'In most cases, those patients die.' Israel says it will not relent until Hamas releases the hostages it still holds after a two-month cease-fire collapsed in March. It has argued that its blockade is lawful, and that Gaza still has enough available provisions. But humanitarian groups and European officials accuse Israel of using aid as a 'political tool' — and warn that the total blockade violates international law. The severity of the siege means it now affects nearly every part of the lives of the roughly two million people trapped inside Gaza, compounding the struggles of a population that has lived for nearly two decades under the partial blockade imposed by Israel and backed by Egypt after Hamas seized control of the enclave in 2007. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
