“Blood is lacking because of the starvation of the population. They cannot ask people to donate blood because of nutritional anemia.”
The last major functioning medical facility in Gaza, Nasser Hospital, has run out of emergency medical care supplies and is losing patients because of a lack of donated blood units, according to a senior government official.
Nasser Hospital “is still in a red area, and … has no supplies for emergency medical care,” Norwegian physician Dr. Mads Gilbert, citing Dr. Yousef Abu al-Rish, Deputy Minister of Health in Gaza, said in a statement to the media on Tuesday.
🏥 Nasser Hospital, already under threat of forced displacement orders, is struggling to cope with the casualties.
Since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations, 397 people have been killed at their aid distribution points.
More than 3,000 people have been injured.
— Medical Aid for Palestinians (@MedicalAidPal) June 17, 2025
Despite this, the hospital in Khan Yunis continues to receive patients “coming in from the various massacres” of Palestinians by Israeli forces taking place at aid distribution points.
‘Nutritional Anemia’
Dr. Gilbert relayed that Dr. Abu al-Rish told him that since October 7, 2023, the Health Ministry has used 150,000 units of blood, “which means which means approximately 250 units of blood daily.”
“Now, blood is lacking because of the starvation of the population. They cannot ask people to donate blood because of nutritional anemia, and the fact that many have already donated units,” he stated.
Gaza Hospitals Near Collapse Due to Israeli Siege, Total Breakdown of Supplies
“They are now losing patients because of (a) lack of full blood, which has been a lifeline during the previous month in hypovolemic bleeding patients,” Dr. Gilbert added.
Even though Nasser Hospital has expanded the number of beds in the ICU from 12 to 51, and in the general wards to 600, Dr. Gilbert said, the hospital is “unable to receive more cases now because they cannot provide life-saving first aid or damage control or life-saving surgery.”
“There is a massive problem of supplies and medical equipment and medical consumables,” he explained.
Dr. Abu al-Rish, he noted, said the food distribution points were being used as “bait” for the starving population, with Israel “killing and maiming” them.
‘Annihilation’ at Aid Points
Also on Tuesday, Dr. Mark Brunner, a US physician, said at a press conference that “every time we know that there’s a so-called food distribution, we know that there’s going to be annihilation.”
He noted that “the first couple of days we were seeing a lot of isolated injuries, head or chest or abdomen, but today it’s reported that tanks have been used at the food distribution centers.”
This “makes sense because we’re seeing multi-trauma, we’re seeing head, neck, chest, abdomen, extremities, many, many deaths, and it just doesn’t have to be this way,” Dr. Brunner added.
American physician Dr. Mark Brunner from Oregon, currently volunteering in Gaza, spoke from the Nasser Medical Complex:
“Every time there’s a so-called food distribution, we know there’s going to be annihilation,” he said.
He described the horror of today’s aid massacre in… pic.twitter.com/1oeOHEMzle
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 17, 2025
He described what he has been seeing in Gaza as “absolutely catastrophic, abnormal, out of this world pain and suffering, and injury to women and children.”
“I don’t see any evidence of warriors, I see malnourished fathers and daughters, I see pregnant women with their babies ripped from their womb by shrapnel,” the physician added.
‘Execution of Humanity’
Another medical professional volunteering in Gaza, Dr. Syed Rahman, pointed out that Nasser Hospital was “the only functioning hospital in all of Gaza for two million plus people.”
“What we’re seeing here is abnormal. We are seeing an absolute annihilation, an execution of humanity from children, from pregnant women, from women nursing, and the execution of human beings is not the only problem,” he stated.
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The physician said that there was “absolute starvation” in the besieged enclave, with people “losing 15 to 20 kilograms” in the past months.
“This is a man-made issue. It can be reversed immediately if the world decides to wake up, Dr. Rahman stressed.
“So please wake up, do something, talk to your politicians, talk to your friends, talk to your families. We need this to stop immediately,” he pleaded.
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Hundreds Killed at Aid Points
The Ministry of Health in Gaza and sources at the Nasser Medical Complex reported that at least 50 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured by Israeli fire while awaiting humanitarian aid in Khan Yunis on Tuesday morning.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the ministry said that “dozens of martyrs and wounded have arrived at Nasser Medical Complex as a result of a horrific massacre committed by the occupation forces against citizens waiting for aid in Khan Yunis Governorate.”
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This latest incident brings the total number of Palestinians killed since May 27—when an American company began distributing aid at various locations across southern and central Gaza as part of a US-Israeli initiative—to at least 338, with 2,831 injured.
The project has faced widespread condemnation from the United Nations and humanitarian organizations, who accuse it of militarizing aid distribution and forcibly displacing civilians.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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