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STORY: UN / GAZA WHO INTERVIEW
TRT: 05:26
SOURCE: UNTV CH / WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 - 26 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
WHO - 25 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
1. Travelling shot, families camped outside Al-Aqsa Hospital
UNTV CH - 26 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Casey, Emergency Medical Team Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We heard about significant casualties arriving in Al-Aqsa hospital. And what we found when we got there was that there had been 100 plus patients brought in with serious injuries within a very short period, within about 30 minutes they said, plus about 100 deaths that were brought into the hospital around the same time. And we heard from one of the doctors at the hospital that they had a stream of patients following that for about the next 12 hours, a significant number of patients.”
WHO - 25 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
3. Wide shot, injured child being treated at Al-Aqsa Hospital
UNTV CH - 26 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Casey, Emergency Medical Team Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We've seen children, women, young men, old men and women, people bleeding out. At the same time yesterday Al-Aqsa I saw a woman who had multiple gunshot wounds. An attempt was made to refer her. And she was referred back because she was bleeding so heavily. So, I mean, there's blood everywhere in these hospitals at the moment. We're seeing almost only trauma cases come through the door at a scale that's quite difficult to believe, it’s a bloodbath as we as we said before, it's carnage.”
WHO - 23 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
5. Various shots, activity outside Al-Shifa Medical Complex
6. Various shots, hospital ward over crowded with patients, IDPs and health care workers
UNTV CH - 26 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Casey, Emergency Medical Team Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO):
“There's nowhere actually being safe in Gaza. We're at the UN Joint Humanitarian Operations Center right now in Rafah. Outside the door of this building, 50 meters from where I am sitting right now, there's a camp of thousands of people who have been settled here, who have resettled here because they've lost their homes, or they fled violence. And they're in plastic shelters, plastic sheeting shelters right outside the door. And last night, we heard fighting almost all night long with reports coming in during the day today of many, many injuries presenting to the hospitals here in the south.”
WHO - 23 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
8. Various shots, overcrowded ward at Al-Shifa Medical Complex with patients on the floor being treated by medical staff
UNTV CH - 26 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Casey, Emergency Medical Team Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Across Gaza at the moment, health capacity is at about 20 percent of what it was 80 or so days ago. So, almost all of the hospital beds, almost all of the hospital services have stopped functioning, either because the facilities themselves have been affected, because the staff have been forced to flee, because they've run out of power or they've run out of medical supplies and or staff have not been able to access them.”
WHO - 23 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
10. Various shots, IDPs and patients at Al-Shifa Medical Complex
UNTV CH - 26 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Casey, Emergency Medical Team Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO):
“All of the noncommunicable diseases, the cancer patients, the people with diabetes, the people with heart conditions and other conditions, they're not able to access services in most of the Gaza Strip right now. The hospitals are totally overwhelmed. And what we were hearing at Aqsa yesterday is that they don't have the shortage necessarily of surgeons. They don't have enough operating theaters; they don't have enough physical space in the hospital to accommodate the number of patients that are coming. And obviously when there's a constant stream of people on the edge of death who need lifesaving care, they take priority.”
WHO - 23 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
12. Travelling shot, IDPs and patients at Al-Shifa Medical Complex
UNTV CH - 26 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Casey, Emergency Medical Team Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO):
“A limited number of supply trucks are coming across the Rafah crossing, and to get supplies to hospitals across the Gaza Strip, we have to plan with the parties to the conflict to make sure the routes are as de-conflicted it as possible so that we know as much as possible that we can proceed safely. Sometimes those routes change. They have to go through areas that are very crowded. And actually with 2 million people almost displaced, we have huge crowds living in certain areas. Even here in Rafah. Sometimes it's hard to drive down the street. It takes 30 minutes to go one kilometer because there are so many people in the streets. And then as you go further north, the level of destruction is so incredible, so significant, that roads are full of rubble, there are down wires, there are downed power lines and poles.”
WHO - 23 DECEMBER 2023, GAZA, PALESTINE
14. Wide shot, WHO staff with IDPs and patients at Al-Shifa Medical Complex
Speaking from the Joint Humanitarian Operations Center in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Medical Team Coordinator Sean Casey today (26 Dec) reported “significant casualties” arriving in Al-Aqsa hospital following a reported Israeli attack on Maghazi refugee camp in Central Gaza on Christmas eve.
He said, “what we found when we got there was that there had been 100 plus patients brought in with serious injuries within a very short period, within about 30 minutes they said, plus about 100 deaths that were brought into the hospital around the same time. And we heard from one of the doctors at the hospital that they had a stream of patients following that for about the next 12 hours.”
Casey, who visited both Al-Aqsa hospital and the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in the last couple of days, said, “We've seen children, women, young men, old men and women, people bleeding out,” adding, “there's blood everywhere in these hospitals at the moment. We're seeing almost only trauma cases come through the door at a scale that's quite difficult to believe, it’s a bloodbath as we as we said before, it's carnage.”
He said, “there's nowhere actually being safe in Gaza,” and noted that “50 meters from where I am sitting right now, there's a camp of thousands of people who have been settled here,” and “last night, we heard fighting almost all night long with reports coming in during the day today of many, many injuries presenting to the hospitals here in the south.”
The WHO staff said, “across Gaza at the moment, health capacity is at about 20 percent of what it was 80 or so days ago. So, almost all of the hospital beds, almost all of the hospital services have stopped functioning, either because the facilities themselves have been affected, because the staff have been forced to flee, because they've run out of power or they've run out of medical supplies and or staff have not been able to access them.”
Beyond the multitude of trauma patients, he explained that “all of the noncommunicable diseases, the cancer patients, the people with diabetes, the people with heart conditions and other conditions, they're not able to access services in most of the Gaza Strip right now.”
Casey said, “the hospitals are totally overwhelmed” and “they don't have enough operating theaters, they don't have enough physical space in the hospital to accommodate the number of patients that are coming. And obviously when there's a constant stream of people on the edge of death who need lifesaving care, they take priority.”
With respect to the distribution of supplies to hospitals, he said, “a limited number of supply trucks are coming across the Rafah crossing, and to get supplies to hospitals across the Gaza Strip, we have to plan with the parties to the conflict to make sure the routes are as de-conflicted it as possible so that we know as much as possible that we can proceed safely. Sometimes those routes change. They have to go through areas that are very crowded. And actually with 2 million people almost displaced, we have huge crowds living in certain areas. Even here in Rafah. Sometimes it's hard to drive down the street. It takes 30 minutes to go one kilometer because there are so many people in the streets. And then as you go further north, the level of destruction is so incredible, so significant, that roads are full of rubble, there are down wires, there are downed power lines and poles.”
Reportedly 70 people were killed, and scores were injured at Maghazi.
Al-Maghazi refugee camp is located in the centre of the Gaza Strip, south of Bureij camp. It was established in 1949 and is one of the smaller camps in Gaza, both in terms of size and population.
Al-Maghazi is characterized by narrow alleys and a high population density.
