Gaza
Erupts In Violence
By IRIN News
13 June, 2007
IRIN
News
TEL AVIV, 12 June
2007 (IRIN) - Patients are dying in crossfire as hospitals
have been overrun by gunmen in a new wave of Gaza violence, which the
UN has warned is jeopardising the delivery of essential humanitarian
aid.
The violence has claimed
17 lives and ambulance teams are being prevented from evacuating the
wounded from combat zones by checkpoints manned by armed fighters across
the Strip, medical organisations said.
Hamas stormed the hospitals
because it was worried Fatah would target its wounded fighters. Gaza
hospitals have often been the scenes of firefights as the wounded from
both sides receive treatment.
Four patients, including
one in the operating theatre, died and 10 more were injured in a hospital
in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, in violence that has led to the
hospital's effective closure, the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) said.
At Shifa Hospital, the biggest
in Gaza City, Hamas and Fatah gunmen traded fire throughout 11 June
and into 12 June but the hospital continued to function, Palestinian
doctors said.
The European Hospital in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and Nasser
Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis have also witnessed fighting,
the doctors told IRIN.
Bid for ceasefire
"Bullets are being fired
into patients' wards and the fighters have told doctors the only way
they are going to be allowed to leave is if they are killed. The situation
is bad and it's impossible to talk to the factions at the moment,"
said a medical official in Gaza City, who requested anonymity.
The ICRC said it was maintaining
operations in Gaza to help with humanitarian evacuations and ensure
medical personnel and supplies could reach the wounded.
“It's extremely difficult
but we are trying to evacuate the wounded and that is our main task.
We are also trying to coordinate ceasefires between Fatah and Hamas
and we have been successful in some areas," said Iyad Nasr, an
ICRC field worker in Gaza.
He added that fighters from
both factions now only trusted ICRC ambulances to transfer the wounded.
"Medical facilities
and staff must be allowed to function at all times but particularly
in times of crises," said Claudia Locher, deputy head of the ICRC's
sub-delegation in Gaza in a statement.
Other medical organisations
said their ambulances simply could not pass through the streets. "There
are hundreds of checkpoints and we cannot move at all," said Dr
Abdel Hadi of the Medical Relief organisation in northern Gaza.
Food supplies in jeopardy
The food supply to almost
a million registered Palestinian refugees is also in jeopardy after
three of the five food distribution centres run by the UN's Relief and
Works Agency (UNRWA) were forced to close as fighting raged nearby and
on occasion spilled over into UNRWA premises.
Seven of UNRWA's 18 medical
centres were also closed amid the violence.
"Some 850,000 people
now depend on us for food. If we can’t get the food to them, they
won't have any food. It's now very difficult to move about. Never has
the humanitarian need in Gaza been greater, and never has the challenge
of getting that aid to the people been greater," said John Ging,
UNRWA's director in Gaza.
"Our staff are doing
a heroic job but we cannot deliver food and medical services in the
crossfire. We hope that the armed men will realise what they are putting
the people of Gaza through and lay down their guns," he added.
About 80 percent of Gaza's
refugee population is now totally dependent on aid, including food parcels,
UNRWA said. The densely populated Strip's economy has collapsed following
the international community's economic boycott of the Palestinian Authority
(PA), which has lasted 15 months and is aimed at forcing Hamas, part
of the PA, to recognise Israel and renounce violence.
Copyright © IRIN 2007.
All rights reserved.
This material comes to you
via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed
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