GAZA, May 19 (NNN-WAFA) – The main COVID-19 testing centre in Gaza city was damaged, due to intensive Israeli fighter jet strikes, waged on the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian health official said yesterday.
Yousef Abu al-Reesh, health ministry director-general in Gaza, told reporters that, the COVID-19 testing centre in the Remal neighbourhood in western Gaza city has completely stopped operating, due to the Israeli airstrikes on the area.
He added, a compound, which includes a laboratory, health ministry and an outpatient clinic, was badly damaged, after several buildings surrounding the compound were completely destroyed by the airstrikes.
He also said that several doctors and health ministry staff were injured, following the Israeli destruction of the buildings on Monday night.
The senior health official called on the international community, mainly the World Health Organisation, to ensure full protection of the health ministry facilities in the Gaza Strip.
“The Gaza Strip needs the help of health and humanitarian organisations, to ensure medical supplies needed for the protection of medical staff, amid the spread of COVID-19 in the world,” he said.
Yesterday, Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said, Israeli fighter jets carried out dozens of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, targeting homes, apartments, roads and agricultural fields.
An Israeli army spokesman said, the fighter jets targeted a network of underground tunnels which belong to the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip.
The statement said, 60 fighter jets took part in the airstrikes, adding that, around 100 missiles were fired within 35 minutes.
The health ministry in Gaza said that, since the start of the tit-for-tat Israeli-Palestinian military confrontation, 212 Palestinians have been killed, including 61 children, while 1,400 others have been injured. Thousands more were left homeless. The Israelis suffered minimal casualties, with only a dozen deaths.– NNN-WAFA
