At least a quarter of people who have been injured in Gaza since the Israeli war broke out last year have “life-changing injuries,” according to new data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
That total — 22,500 people as of late July, and likely closer to 24,000 today, officials said — is mostly made up of people whose limbs were amputated or otherwise severely injured. But some also have spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and major burn injuries.
The WHO considers the injuries to be life-changing if people continue to need rehabilitation services in the long term.
The figures are “pretty shocking,” Dr Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for the Palestinian territories, said during a press briefing.
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The new estimates are based on the injuries that emergency medical teams in Gaza report to the WHO on a regular basis. The data was collected from January to May and then extrapolated through late July, according to Pete Skelton, WHO’s rehabilitation in emergencies advisor.
Gaza’s health system decimated by war
Peeperkorn said the “decimation” of Gaza’s health system has made it difficult for wounded people to get medical treatment for their acute injuries, let alone rehabilitative care.
Seventeen of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are now partially open, though medical services are frequently inaccessible due to staff shortages, damage to buildings, a lack of specialist care, attacks, and evacuation orders.
The report indicates that just 13% of the need for wheelchairs, crutches, and other rehabilitation equipment has been met. That doesn’t include Gazans who already had disabling conditions – just those who have been injured since the conflict’s escalation.
“We have lost all inpatient rehabilitation services due to the conflict,” Skelton said, adding that the agency has been working to get wheelchairs and crutches into Gaza this week.
As of mid-May, 39 physiotherapists have been killed in Gaza, according to the WHO report.
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Palestinian health authorities said that more than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza during 11 months of war that have been marked by Israeli bombings and ground attacks.
Short of a ceasefire, Peeperkorn called for the establishment of medical corridors that would allow health and humanitarian supplies to make their way into Gaza and for critically injured people to be evacuated to other countries.
“We need a better organised and sustained system, not an ad hoc approach,” Peeperkorn said.
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