“Israel’s” Unlimited Barbarism: Gaza’s Main Lab Damaged in Zionist Strikes

By Staff, Agencies 

Again it’s “Israel’s” brutality that governs the scene. 

As part of the continuous “Israeli” barbarism in Gaza, the besieged strip’s Covid-19 testing and vaccination site was taken offline after it was struck in an “Israeli” air raid.

This comes as Palestinian health officials warned that Tel Aviv’s bombing campaign will drive a surge in the pandemic.

The strikes triggered a “complete halt” to immunizations, virus screenings and telemedicine services at Gaza’s Al-Rimal clinic on Monday, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Monday, noting that its own headquarters was also damaged in the bombing. 

“The ‘Israeli’ occupation’s targeting of the Ministry of Health and Al-Rimal Clinic caused a complete halt to the work of the only central laboratory examining coronavirus tests in [Gaza],” Health Ministry Undersecretary Youssef Abu al-Rish said in a statement, condemning the airstrikes as “a heinous crime aimed at dissuading the ministry from continuing its humanitarian work.”

In a separate statement, the ministry said that “Israeli” forces were targeting “densely populated residential areas,” sending some 40,000 families to crowded shelters, which have become “a dangerous environment for the rapid spread of Covid-19.” It urged the international community to provide “critically needed personal protection equipment” for the shelters.

The official announcement followed similar reports from both the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], as well as the territory’s UN mission, which relayed a warning from UN chief Antonio Guterres that the fighting could “unleash an uncontainable security and humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.

The UN’s Gaza relief agency, the UNRWA, has also voiced fears that the eruption of violence could fuel a surge in the pandemic, with agency official Matthias Schmale observing that “Israeli” airstrikes were sending large numbers of unvaccinated Palestinians into cramped shelters, saying they “could turn into mass spreaders.”

With Gaza under a tight Israeli blockade, health agencies have found themselves ill-equipped for the ongoing health crisis, seeing major shortages in tests, treatments and vaccines. The latest aggression has only made matters worse, overwhelming Gaza’s hospitals with dead and wounded, and even martyring some healthcare professionals.