The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned Tuesday that a sharp rise in deaths and injuries near aid distribution sites in Gaza is overwhelming the territory’s already strained health system.
The ICRC said in a statement that its field hospital in south Gaza recorded 200 deaths since the new aid distribution sites were launched in late May.
The facility also treated more than 2,200 "weapon-wounded patients, most of them across more than 21 separate mass casualty events," it added.
"Over the past month, a sharp surge in mass casualty incidents linked to aid distribution sites has overwhelmed Gaza's shattered healthcare system," the ICRC said.
"The scale and frequency of these incidents are without precedent," it said, adding that its field hospital had treated more patients since late May than "in all mass casualty events during the entire previous year."
To cope with the flow of wounded, ICRC said that all its staff were now contributing to the emergency response effort.
"Physiotherapists support nurses, cleaning and dressing wounds and taking vitals. Cleaners now serve as orderlies, carrying stretchers wherever they are needed. Midwives have stepped into palliative care," it added.
An officially private effort, the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking warnings of imminent famine.
GHF operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.
More than 500 people have been killed while waiting to access rations from its distribution sites, the U.N. Human Rights Office said Friday.
The GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.
Gaza's health system has been at a point of near collapse for months, with nearly all hospitals and health facilities either out of service or only partly functional.
Israel's drastic restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza, since the start of the genocidal war 21 months ago, have caused shortages of everything, including medicine, medical supplies, and fuel, which hospitals rely on to power their generators.
"The absence of accessible fuel means no ambulances, no electricity for hospitals, and no clean water," the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report Monday.
Israel had not allowed any fuel to enter the Palestinian territory in four months, it added.
"Service providers such as hospitals have been rationing supplies, but this cannot sustain life-saving operations for much longer."
