Christian Aid Groups Clinics in
Gaza Destroyed by Israel Raids
14/01/2009
January 13, 2009
Israeli warplanes have
attacked two fully equipped medical clinics in Gaza,
causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage, the
Christian organisations which fund them reported
yesterday. The Catholic relief group Caritas said its
clinic in the al-Meghazi area of Gaza had been
"completely destroyed" by a missile on Friday, and that
20 nearby homes had been damaged. Because local families
had already fled their homes, no one was hurt, Caritas
said, but equipment worth $10,000 (£6,700) was lost.
Twenty-fours hours later,
another clinic funded by Christian Aid was also
demolished in an air strike; it followed a telephone
warning to the building's owners to leave within 15
minutes. Janet Symes, Christian Aid's head of Middle
East Region, said the clinic had "standing room" only
for mothers bringing their children for check-ups when
she visited it last year. She added: "Now the whole
clinic lies in ruins."
Little more than a sixth of
the 1,200 Egyptian hospital beds being reserved for
injured Palestinians have been filled, despite estimates
that more than 4,000 have been wounded. With a World
Health Organisation report saying that Gaza City's Shifa
Hospital remains "overwhelmed", the dangers of
evacuating patients through southern Gaza have severely
reduced the flow of patients to hospitals in Egypt. The
Red Cross has decided to keep its evacuations under
review after one of its lorries was shot at by Israeli
troops.
©independent.co.uk
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-clinics-destroyed-by-raids-1332022.html