Gaza Health Ministry ceases coordination with WHO on evacuation of wounded, medics

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has stopped coordinating with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the evacuation of the wounded and medics due to an incident involving the detention of medical workers.

“Yesterday, a convoy of WHO vehicles attempted to evacuate patients and doctors from Al-Shifa Hospital. However, we soon learned that the Israeli military stopped the convoy last night on the border between the northern and southern regions of the enclave. The vehicles were kept for almost seven hours, during which doctors, patients, the wounded and those accompanying them were subjected to violence by the Israeli army,” the Ministry’s Spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told the Qatari television channel Al Jazeera.

“As a result, several doctors were detained, including the director of Al-Shifa, Mohammed Abu Silmiya. We hold the UN responsible for what happened and expect them to take urgent measures to correct the current situation. The Ministry of Health has decided to completely stop coordinating with WHO regarding the evacuation of the remaining hospital patients and doctors working there until it provides us with a report on what happened,” al-Qudra emphasized.

“The presence of the UN and the evacuation under their patronage put our doctors at risk,” he added. “WHO has still not provided the Ministry of Health with any explanation of what happened and has not reported the exact number and names of those detained.”

At the same time, the Palestinian radical movement Hamas on Thursday called on international organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and WHO, to assist in the release of the director and doctors of the Al-Shifa hospital detained by the Israeli military.