Healthcare workers unite for Gaza amid worsening humanitarian crisis

SCORES of healthcare workers across some of the biggest hospitals in Gauteng participated in lunchtime pickets as they stood in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

- SIYABONGA SITHOLE

The pickets, part of the Healthcare Workers for Palestine, have indicated that the public health crisis in Gaza continues to worsen, with increasing attacks on hospitals and healthcare facilities.

According to media reports, Gaza's already compromised healthcare system is in a state of collapse, with blood banks reported to be running dry while Israeli forces continue targeting clinics and facilities housing patients and displaced families.

Al Jazeera reports that healthcare officials in parts of Gaza have been besieged, resulting in a severe shortage of blood as many would-be donors are too malnourished to help due to an Israeli-induced hunger crisis that has so far claimed the lives of 193 Palestinians, including five in the past 48 hours.

Speaking outside the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Muzzammil Tayob, a 5th-year medical student, said it is important for the world, including South Africans, to show their solidarity with the victims of genocide who are dying in their numbers in Gaza.