WHO says moving vulnerable patients 'impossible'
Published: 05:11 PM,Nov 14,2023 | EDITED : 09:11 PM,Nov 14,2023
CORRECTION / EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Men walk as patients rest at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. Heavy fighting was raging near Al-Shifa hospital, with Israel saying it had killed dozens of militants and destroyed tunnels that are key to Hamas's capacity to fight. Israel launched an offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters poured across the heavily militarised border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages.
(Photo by AFP)
GENEVA: The World Health Organization insisted Tuesday that moving the most vulnerable patients from Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital has become an 'impossible task'.
The Israeli mission in Geneva had at the weekend slammed the WHO, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for criticising Israel's month-long call for civilians and patients to leave the Palestinian enclave's main hospital.
Israel has faced growing international pressure over its offensive the since the October 7.
'The international community could have facilitated the transfer of patients, but they did nothing, except call out Israel,' the mission said.
But the WHO said moving the most fragile patients would inevitably lead to deaths.
'The reason we said that people can't be evacuated is first of all ... the people in the hospitals were very vulnerable, very sick. So moving them was an impossible task,' WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told journalists in Geneva.
She said it would be 'asking doctors and nurses to move people knowing that would kill them'.
'And again, why would you need to move them? A hospital should never be under attack. A hospital is a place, a safe haven. This is agreed under international humanitarian law.'
Doctors say thousands of people are stranded inside in horrific conditions.
The ICRC said on X platform, that under international humanitarian law, 'hospitals are protected because of their life-saving function for wounded and sick'.
While it is possible for hospitals to lose that protection under certain circumstances, 'this is not a free licence to attack', it insisted.
Harris said there was a lack of healthcare capacity in southern Gaza, with most healthcare, especially the most complex, usually provided in the north.
She said many hospitals were unable to admit new patients.
Moving patients from the north 'might kill them -- but also, where did they go? Where do you put them?' said Harris.
'There were very clear reasons why that was not something that was in any way feasible.' — AFP
The Israeli mission in Geneva had at the weekend slammed the WHO, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for criticising Israel's month-long call for civilians and patients to leave the Palestinian enclave's main hospital.
Israel has faced growing international pressure over its offensive the since the October 7.
'The international community could have facilitated the transfer of patients, but they did nothing, except call out Israel,' the mission said.
But the WHO said moving the most fragile patients would inevitably lead to deaths.
'The reason we said that people can't be evacuated is first of all ... the people in the hospitals were very vulnerable, very sick. So moving them was an impossible task,' WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told journalists in Geneva.
She said it would be 'asking doctors and nurses to move people knowing that would kill them'.
'And again, why would you need to move them? A hospital should never be under attack. A hospital is a place, a safe haven. This is agreed under international humanitarian law.'
Doctors say thousands of people are stranded inside in horrific conditions.
The ICRC said on X platform, that under international humanitarian law, 'hospitals are protected because of their life-saving function for wounded and sick'.
While it is possible for hospitals to lose that protection under certain circumstances, 'this is not a free licence to attack', it insisted.
Harris said there was a lack of healthcare capacity in southern Gaza, with most healthcare, especially the most complex, usually provided in the north.
She said many hospitals were unable to admit new patients.
Moving patients from the north 'might kill them -- but also, where did they go? Where do you put them?' said Harris.
'There were very clear reasons why that was not something that was in any way feasible.' — AFP