WHO says it has no information about status of al-Shifa Hospital director
Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Gaza’s largest hospital, was detained by Israeli forces yesterday along with five other health workers while transferring patients to the south of the enclave.
The WHO said in a statement that two of the six have been released.
“We do not have information about the well-being of the four remaining health staff, including the director of Al-Shifa Hospital. WHO calls for their legal and human rights to be fully observed during their detention,” it said.
The agency added that the health workers were detained at an Israeli checkpoint “despite an initial agreement to only screen participants at the origination point in Al-Shifa Hospital”.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza had said it wanted an explanation from the WHO and would stop coordination with the agency on evacuations until they got a report explaining what happened.
(...) The screening process involved checks on the patients, their relatives, and the personnel; these included elderly, children and severely ill patients. Three medical personnel from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and three from the Ministry of Health were detained.
After 6 hours at the security checkpoint, the convoy proceeded as the condition of some of patients was already deteriorating. Patients reached their final destination late at night.
Most of the patients were ultimately transferred to the European Gaza Hospital, with the dialysis patients admitted to Al Najjar Hospital. Both facilities are in the south of Gaza.
WHO is extremely concerned about the safety of the estimated 100 patients and health workers remaining at Al-Shifa. Due to the limited time that the mission members were able to spend in the hospital and the urgency of moving the most critical, it was difficult to determine exactly how many remain.
Two of the six detained health workers have reportedly been released. We do not have information about the well-being of the four remaining health staff, including the director of Al-Shifa hospital. WHO calls for their legal and human rights to be fully observed during their detention.
This and other evacuations were requested by health authorities, health workers and patients, and became necessary as Al-Shifa Hospital is no longer able to function due to lack of water, fuel, medical supplies, food, and staff, and recent military incursions.(...)
