Services at main cancer center in Gaza ‘severely reduced’: WHO

Services at the main cancer center in the Gaza Strip are “severely reduced” as a result of Israel’s siege on basic necessities, including electricity, fuel, medicine and medical equipment, in response to militant group Hamas’s surprise attacks earlier this month.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) office in the occupied Palestinian territory said there have been “extremely concerning reports” of airstrikes in the area of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which serves as the main cancer center in Gaza.

“We cannot emphasize enough the importance of protecting health care in #Gaza,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “… Cancer patients are already fragile and it’s imperative to do everything possible to ensure they’re receiving the care they need. It’s truly a matter of life or death.”

Fighting in Israel and Gaza raged on in its third week since Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, carried out a bloody rampage into Israel on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,400 people in Israel dead, most of them civilians.

In response, Israel launched a major counteroffensive into Gaza, sending hundreds of airstrikes and multiple bombs into the region where nearly 2.3 million Palestinian civilians reside.

Israeli forces stepped up its military incursion into the Gaza Strip over the weekend, attacking Hamas militants and infrastructure in northern Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has intensified air and naval strikes, while signaling at a wider ground incursion into Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel’s siege on food, water, fuel, medicine and electricity has exhausted the already depleted resources in Gaza, driving hospitals and humanitarian shelters to the verge of collapse.

While about three dozen trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, humanitarian leaders have warned this is a mere fraction of what is needed to address the crisis. Thousands of people broke into warehouses, taking flour and basic hygiene products, the AP reported.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes as a result of both the attacks and siege, taking refuge in schools-turned-shelters or in hospitals alongside the thousands of injured patients, per The Associated Press.

At least 8,525 Palestinians have died in the violence in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 21,500 civilians have been wounded since Oct. 7, the ministry reported, further overwhelming hospitals.

The health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said it’s asking people to donate blood in all hospitals and blood bank branches in the Gaza Strip and called on the Red Cross to help provide “large quantities of blood units” outside of the Gaza Strip to meet the demands.