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Medics in Gaza Strip need 7,000 blood units due to lack of donors

Director of Gaza’s Medical Laboratories and Blood Banks Department Sahar Ghanem urged "the entire world to interfere" in order to save the patients in local hospitals

DOHA, June 11. /TASS/. Medical facilities in the Gaza Strip are experiencing a severe shortage of blood bank supplies with local doctors being in urgent need of 7,000 blood units in order to help local residents, Director of Gaza’s Medical Laboratories and Blood Banks Department Sahar Ghanem said.

"We are in urgent need of 7,000 blood units. There aren’t enough donors due to poverty and hunger," she told Al Jazeera. Ghanem has urged "the entire world to interfere" in order to save the patients in local hospitals who can die due to the lack of donor blood.

On March 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the halt of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and the closure of all checkpoints on the enclave’s border. On March 18, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) resumed operations in Gaza, launching massive strikes and breaking the ceasefire established this January.

On May 18, Netanyahu’s office announced it will allow a "basic amount of food" to enter Gaza to ensure that "no starvation crisis develops" after blockading the territory for weeks. On the same day, the enclave’s Health Ministry reported that all state hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip had suspended operation. On June 9, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the Nasser Medical Complex remained the only hospital in service in the southern part of the enclave.