10,000 cancer patients in Gaza without medicine

GAZA CITY: There are 10,000 cancer patients in Gaza without critically needed medicine after the only hospital for cancer treatment was forced out of service by the Israeli army in the early days of Israel's devastating onslaught on Gaza, the head of a hospital in the strip said Monday.

"After the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital for cancer was forced to go out of service, there are 10,000 cancer patients facing compelling and inhumane circumstances," Anadolu Agency quoted Dr Subhi Skaik, the hospital's director, as saying in a statement.

He said these patients are currently having no access to cancer medicine.

Skaik urged countries worldwide to help get the hospital running again, calling it the "only resort for cancer patients in Gaza."

Late in October, the Health Ministry in Gaza announced that the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital had to stop offering services after it was severely bombed by the Israeli army.

In 2011-2017, the Turkish government funded construction of the hospital, the only hospital in Gaza for treating cancer, with six floors and an area of 34,800 square metres, and a capacity of 180 beds.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since Oct 7, killing at least 21,978 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 57,697 others, according to local health authorities.

-- BERNAMA