Gaza health minister announces ‘complete collapse’ of health system, calls on Egypt to open Rafah border

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip face “complete collapse,” according to Gaza’s Health Minister Ashraf al-Qudra in a Tuesday afternoon statement.

Though hospital doors remain open, it “does not mean that they are providing service to the flood of wounded people flowing into them,” Qudra added. 

He called on Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing to allow for fuel and medical aid to flow into Gaza and for the sick and wounded to leave for treatment. 

Hospitals operating in the strip have been overwhelmed by an influx of patients, with over 5,791 people killed and more than 16,297 injured in Israel’s relentless assault on the besieged coastal enclave. Since the beginning of its offensive operations, 17 days ago, Israel has also cut off electricity, water and all supplies of fuel to the strip, bringing the health system to its knees.

The border crossing between Egypt and Palestine at Rafah has only allowed three aid convoys to Gaza so far, which humanitarian agencies have said is grossly inadequate to the needs of the 2.3 million Palestinians in the strip.

Aid deliveries — which were cut off entirely for the first two weeks of the war after four Israeli airstrikes targeted the crossing on the Gazan side — are now constrained by a set of conditions imposed by Israel, while distribution is slow. “The mechanism for bringing in medical aid is futile and the collapsed hospitals have not been helped until this moment,” said Qudra.

Israel’s conditions require security checks, which are currently being conducted 45 km south of the Rafah crossing, prohibiting the delivery of supplies to the entire northern part of the strip and completely ruling out the delivery of fuel — a key resource to power hospitals and secure the delivery of the limited supplies. 

“We fear that more [hospitals] will be out of service in the coming hours due to targeting and running out of fuel,” said Qudra, noting that twelve hospitals are already completely inoperative. He called on the international community to supply fuel quickly to save thousands of wounded and sick people and to send specialized medical delegations to help, noting an increased incidence in complex burn injuries which medical teams are struggling to remedy.

Sixty-five members of the healthcare system’s medical staff have been killed, Qudra added, and 25 ambulances were destroyed in airstrikes.

Though multiple countries have delivered aid to Egypt’s Arish international airport, including Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, most of it is still waiting to be delivered to the besieged strip. 

In the meantime, Israel’s aggression on Gaza appears to be escalating, with over 400 killed in airstrikes on Sunday night alone.