A humanitarian aid worker said the healthcare facilities in Northern Gaza had been decimated by the Israeli onslaught. Starting in October, Israel began the systematic destruction of all structures in three Northern Gaza cities. 

MSF (the French acronym for Doctors Without Borders) emergency coordinator Caroline Seguin explained the situation in Northern Gaza. “The level of destruction is total, it’s a flat land. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Our Palestinian colleagues are no longer able to recognize their own neighborhoods, some were in shock, others collapsed.” 

She continued, “In Gaza City we were already shocked by the level of destruction but then we went north to Jabalia and we couldn’t say a word. There is nothing there anymore. Only ruins and the smell of death everywhere because of the dead bodies still trapped under the rubble.”

When asked about the medical system, Seguin stated that one hospital was utterly destroyed and the remaining healthcare facilities were operating at partial capacity. She noted that there was effectively no healthcare system remaining in Northern Gaza. 

“There is no health system anymore in the northern part of Gaza. Kamal Adwan hospital has been razed, while Al Shifa, Al Awda and Indonesian hospitals are seriously damaged and only partially functioning.” She added, “We were utterly shocked to observe that in Indonesian hospital every medical machine seemed to have been deliberately destroyed; they were smashed to pieces, one by one, to make sure no medical care could be provided anymore.”

Throughout the war on Gaza, aid agencies and doctors have frequently complained about Israeli attacks on hospitals as well as the kidnapping of doctors and other medical staff. 

Seguin said even as Gaza is currently in a ceasefire, there is not enough aid reaching the people of Northern Gaza. “We are still not seeing the massive scale up of humanitarian assistance needed in northern Gaza. The humanitarian community is failing to provide essential services to people in dire need of humanitarian and medical support,” she stated. 

As a part of the ceasefire and hostage deal, Israel agreed to let hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza each day. However, Tel Aviv has failed to meet the requirements set out in the agreement.