The World Health Organization said Thursday it evacuated nearly 100 people from the Gaza Strip to the United Arab Emirates, and it called for a regular, sustained system of medical transfers to help thousands of people in need of care.
“Gaza needs medical corridors,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory told journalists. “We need a better organized and sustained system.”
Peeperkorn said there are 10,000 people in Gaza who are awaiting a medical transfer.
The WHO also released a report Thursday that says one-fourth of those injured in the Gaza war as of late July “are estimated to have life-changing injuries that require rehabilitation services now and for years to come.”
Severe limb injuries were the top need for rehabilitation, while there have also been large increases in the number of spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries and major burns, the WHO said. The injured include “many thousands of women and children.”
The WHO also highlighted increased challenges in providing the necessary care due to insecurity, a lack of supplies, attacks and evacuation orders making many medical facilities unable to function.
Activist killed
Turkey said Thursday it is conducting its own investigation into the killing of a Turkish-American activist by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank.
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Turkey will present its findings to a U.N. court, and that it is calling on the U.N. to conduct its own probe.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot in the head during a pro-Palestinian demonstration last week. Israel’s military said its soldiers likely shot her “indirectly and unintentionally.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said there must be “full accountability” and that Israel “must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.”
Tunc said Eygi’s body was expected to arrive in Turkey on Friday for burial in the town of Didim.
The war started with the Hamas attack on southern Israel last October that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel’s subsequent counteroffensive has killed more than 41,100 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of militants.
Hamas has been designated a terror group by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others.
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
