Teams from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have reported that areas in Northern Gaza, including surrounding Nasser Hospital, have been completely destroyed as Israel continues to wage its deadly offensive on the enclave, the international medical charity's secretary general told Anadolu.
"The whole area is completely pulverized ... it's absolutely destroyed," Christopher Lockyear said in an interview, describing the scenes MSF health teams on the ground witnessed earlier this month in Northern Gaza.
The health and malnutrition situation in Northern Gaza is "beyond describable," Lockyear said, pointing out that the northern area in the already blockaded Gaza Strip is currently under a "siege within a siege."
Lockyear, who has worked in Gaza despite the intense Israeli attacks, said he had opportunity to visit many hospitals in the area, including the MSF-supported Indonesia Hospital, underlining that they were overflowing with injured patients.
He also recounted how, during an early morning visit to the Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, he saw how Israeli forces had heavily bombarded the medical facility's surroundings the night before.
According to Lockyear, hospitals in Gaza are under extreme duress as bed capacity can longer meet the shear volume of sick and injured.
He said that walking around Al-Aqsa Hospital "you have to be incredibly careful not to tread on injured patients who are lying on both sides of the corridors waiting for surgery, waiting for wounds treatment."
- 'No health system to speak of'
"Catastrophic" is how Lockyear described the health situation in Gaza, where over 32,500 perished in the Israeli onslaught that has continued since Oct. 7 last year.
"There's no health system left to speak of," he said, stressing that hospitals are "completely packed."
"We're having to decide which patients we prioritize, which is horrific."
- Airdrops not a success story
Noting efforts of many organizations, including the MSF, to provide services in the field, Lockyear said, underlining that they have been working with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) as the backbone of aid provision in Gaza.
Lockyear emphasized that all organizations are working together as the utmost extent in an "incredibly restricting, manipulative, manipulated, and cynical environment."
"What we're able to provide is a tiny amount of what's needed, whether that's the medical services ... whether that's the food that's critically needed, whether that's fuel, water," he said.
Pointing out the challenges of getting humanitarian materials into the Gaza Strip and distributing them to residents, Lockyear said aid aid airdrops that several countries have been conducting are "not a success story"
"Airdrops are incredibly ineffective and always a method of last resort," he said, stressing that aid was not getting to the region in sufficient quantity and quality.
Unsurprised by recent reports of malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, Lockyear cited his firsthand observations of women and children suffering from malnutrition.
This is the harsh reality of Gaza, he said, noting that locals are not accustomed to such conditions of malnutrition. Lockyear mentioned the need to retrain staff to effectively treat malnourished individuals across different demographics.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people.
The Israeli war, now in its 174th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
