Director of Gaza’s Ambulance Services to QNA: Israeli Intense Bombardments Prevent Rescue Personnel from Responding to Distress Calls

With the increasing number of massacres being perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army against the Palestinian IDPs and civilians in the Gaza Strip and intensifying airstrikes and bombardment from the ground and sea, the medical and rescue personnel find themselves unable to respond to the calls for help from the residents throughout the Gaza enclave. Director of ambulance and emergency services in northern Gaza, Fares Afaneh, expressed to Qatar News Agency , his strong regret over the inability of medical personnel to respond to the citizens' appeals due to the ongoing intense airstrikes and the siege by occupation forces of many homes and residential neighborhoods, in addition to the Israeli army's targeting of anyone moving around those areas. He clarified that distress calls and requests for ambulance services have been focused recently in neighborhoods like Shuja'iya, Tel Al-Hawa, and Sabra in the city of Gaza, as ambulance personnel are unable to respond to these distress calls due to difficulty in accessing those areas, danger of targeted areas, and high- intensity shelling there, at a time the Israeli military is besieging a substantial number of families inside their homes in those neighborhoods. Afaneh pointed out that the Gazans are facing an extremely tragic situation, as the Israeli occupation army continues to strike residential blocks, forcibly displacing them from their homes and shelter centers across the enclave. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses told QNA that the Israeli occupation army continues to carry out storming campaigns of Palestinians' homes in the industrial area south of Gaza City and forces the Gazans to venture out. Thereafter, the Israeli army tortures and murders them. Amidst the ongoing targeting by the Israeli occupation army of the healthcare system, devastating and burning of hospitals, rendering them out of service, along with the immense pressure on medical personnel, shortage of medicines, and medical supplies, Director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, Dr. Marwan Sultan warned that patients' lives remained at a high stake. He told QNA that within a few hours, medical services at the hospital will discontinue due to severe fuel shortages, urging all international organizations to intervene immediately to prevent a humanitarian disaster. In the same context, Director of Supply for Civil Defense in Gaza, Muhammad Al-Mughair, denounced the use of internationally banned bombs by the Israeli military in the areas of high population density, in addition to squeezing out the Gazas humanitarian aid and stopping the flow of fuel supplies to the civil defense and other humanitarian institutions. The Israeli occupation army continues to commit acts of genocide against Palestinian citizens in Gaza, particularly the IDPs. The latest of these was the bombardment of a school sheltering thousands of IDPs in Khan Younis city, southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. The mass slaughter resulted in the martyrdom of at least 29 Palestinians, in addition to dozens of injuries, constituting a b latant violation of international humanitarian law, Geneva Conventions, and rulings issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Source: Qatar News Agency