70 percent of refugees in northern Gaza do not have access to health care

The authorities have made an urgent call for blood donation

MADRID, 15 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Around 70 percent of the refugees in the northern Gaza Strip – which Israel has ordered to evacuate – do not currently have access to health care, according to the enclave's Ministry of Health.

"70 percent of the population of the Gaza and northern Gaza regions are deprived of refugee health services after UNRWA evacuated its centers and suspended its services," said a ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al. Qudra, through the organization's social networks in reference to the Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East.

In addition, Al Qudra has warned that ambulance personnel are having enormous difficulties transporting new victims of the Israeli attacks due to damage to the roads leading to hospitals.

On the other hand, the Gaza Ministry of Health has made an "urgent" call to donate blood in hospitals in the area, mainly Al Shifa Hospital and other centers included in the Blood Bank Network "to donate blood immediately ".

The latest balance from the Ministry includes 300 dead and 800 injured during the day on Saturday, "most of them children and women." In total, since the beginning of the Israeli retaliatory attacks, 2,329 deaths and 9,042 injuries have been recorded.

The Ministry has highlighted that this figure exceeds by just eight days the death toll during the 51 days of the 2014 war, which is why they consider that "these crimes against our people are equivalent to ethnic cleansing," according to Al Qudra.

The health facilities are overflowing and even the mortuaries cannot cope, so refrigerated trucks, normally used for transporting frozen foods and ice cream, are beginning to be used to store the bodies of the deceased.