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Nov. 8 (UPI) -- As conditions become more dire in Gaza amid Israel's war on Hamas, doctors say they have resorted to performing emergency surgeries without anesthesia. In addition to crucial medical supplies, officials report that food, water and fuel are critically short, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, where little aid is able to penetrate the region bombarded by Israeli airstrikes.
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Many hospitals have been shuttered and those that are still operating are doing so with far too many patients for the staff and resources available.
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday that doctors have had to do surgeries, even amputations, without anesthesia.
"Nothing justifies the horror being endured by civilians in Gaza," he said.
In a show of how even daily essentials are hard to come by, bakeries in Gaza have also closed, depriving desperate residents of the most basic food needs.
A month into the war, Israel's ground forces have encircled and penetrated Gaza City, a Hamas stronghold and the northern region's most populous area and driven a wedge through the middle of Gaza to the Mediterranean shore.
Israel has said its increasingly aggressive military campaign is aimed at destroying Hamas and rescuing more than 240 people who were abducted during Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Israel's attacks have resulted in thousands of deaths in Gaza as the United States and other allies call for a humanitarian cease-fire.
Nations have warned that if calls for a cease-fire continue to be ignored, the stability of the entire Middle East is at risk.
Israel has resisted pleas for a cease-fire and said there can be no pause in the violence until Hamas releases the hostages, and has reiterated that without the destruction of Hamas, Israel cannot be assured safety from future Gazan attacks.
More than half of the 2 million civilians in Gaza have been displaced from their homes but are unable to escape the besieged territory.
