SEVERAL GAZA HOSPITALS MAY SHUT SOON

Dr Mads Frederick Gilbert (centre) at Al-Shifa hospital on July 17th, treating a wounded Palestinian child, after an Israeli air strike killed 4 children and wounded 5 others. (Photo: MEMO)

Gaza, 22 Shawal 1436/7 August 2015 (MINA) – A number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip may be forced to close due to a lack of funding and because of the ongoing humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave, Deputy Palestinian Minister of Health Dr Yousef Abu Al-Rish warned.

Quds Press reported Abu Al-Rish saying that the situation in the medical centres and hospitals has become “catastrophic”. He said the basic services are in danger of being stopped, Middle East Monitor reported.

He called for the national unity government to not “giving up its responsibilities towards the Gaza Strip, mainly the healthcare sector.”

“The ministry in Gaza is deprived of the running and administrative expenses needed to cover all its daily needs. The problems are aggravating day after day.”

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He said that the biggest problem is that the employees have not received salaries for the second consecutive year.

Abu Al-Rish urged the “persistence of the government, based in Ramallah, to continue allowing the entrance of medicines and medical staff to the Strip,” warning that many basic medicines have already run out.(T/R04/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)