Gaza Winter: Doctors Warn Thousands of Palestinians Could Die from Cold, Hunger, Disease

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International outrage is growing over Israel’s abduction of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabaliya refugee camp, who was detained after Israeli forces raided and shut down the last major hospital in northern Gaza last week. A new United Nations report finds that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip have “pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse.” Displaced Palestinians throughout the territory are dying from the ongoing Israeli bombardment, as well as injuries, infections and diseases due to Israel’s restrictions on medical care and medical supplies. At least six babies have also died of hypothermia in recent days amid plunging winter temperatures. “Living conditions are just deplorable. They are not compatible with human life,” says Dr. Mimi Syed, an emergency medicine physician who just left Gaza after volunteering there for a month. We also speak with trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who previously volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. “It’s very likely that tens or even hundreds of thousands of people are going to die of the combination of malnutrition, displacement, exposure to the elements and hypothermia this winter,” says Sidhwa.

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