Gaza hospitals: No food, injured children sleeping on the floor

20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Hamas-Israel conflict began...

An aid worker has claimed that he saw “injured kids sleeping on the hospital floor” at a medical facility in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. There were “injured people everywhere” at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Abu Fares, 53, a volunteer with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, told NBC News.

“I saw injured kids sleeping on the hospital floor," he said. He also claimed there is no food in the facility. "Even if you have money, it doesn't matter," he said.

Flour that may be available in some markets could be 100 times more expensive than usual. "We are not on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. We are in a crisis," Fares said.

‘Toxic mix of disease, hunger and lack of hygiene and sanitation’

The World Health Organization’s head has claimed that there is a "toxic mix of disease, hunger and lack of hygiene and sanitation" faced by people in the Gaza Strip. “Hunger weakens the body’s defenses and opens the door to disease,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

He added, “Gaza is already experiencing soaring rates of infectious disease outbreaks. Diarrhoea cases among children aged under 5 are 25 times what they were before the conflict. Such illnesses can be lethal for malnourished children, more so in the absence of functioning health services. We need a ceasefire now.”

At least 66% of employment has been lost in Gaza and the West Bank following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the U.N. agency the International Labour Organization has said. “The repercussions on the lives and livelihoods of affected communities are beyond anything seen in the Occupied Palestinian Territory before," ILO regional director for Arab states Ruba Jaradat said in a statement, as per NBC News. Jaradat added that the impact has “grave cascading implications” on the West Bank too.

Meanwhile, it has been reported by Hamas' government media office that an estimated 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Hamas-Israel conflict began after the October 7 attack. Among them are 8,000 children and more than 6,000 women. About 6,700 people reportedly remain missing.