The World Health Organization is set to evacuate the last patients and medical staff stranded at three major hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, its spokesperson said on Tuesday.
"We are looking at three hospitals right now in the north that asked to be evacuated. But, again, the important point is where to? There is no safe space," Christian Lindmeier told reporters at a daily briefing.
He identified the hospitals as the Shifa Hospital, Indonesian Hospital and Al Ahli Arab Hospital. All three have de facto stopped operating after running out of fuel, electricity and medical supplies, Lindmeier said, adding that the north of Gaza no longer had a single functioning medical facility.
About 200 in-patients and 50 medical staff will be evacuated from the Shifa Hospital alone, the WHO estimated. The evacuations are being conducted with the help of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
The WHO spokesman stressed that hospital evacuations were not an answer because they deprived the local population of their only health care option.
"Taking away health care from people is taking away the last resort, it's taking away the last piece of humanity, and that's what is happening right now. That means the situation on the ground has grown so dire that the only other alternative is facing what they think is certain death as the hospitals are under attack, as al-Shifa is under attack," he said.
Lindmeier said that remaining health care facilities in the south were struggling to help thousands of critically ill patients without having access to fuel or medical supplies, while infectious diseases spread horrifyingly fast in overcrowded UN-run shelters.