Director of Gaza City’s devastated al-Shifa Hospital Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya has made an urgent appeal for the entry of blood units into the war-torn enclave, saying large numbers of wounded were dying each day due to blood shortages, Al Jazeera reports.

“We are completely unable to provide blood units for the wounded and sick,” he said. “Young men and women come to us to donate blood, only to discover that they themselves need blood transfusions due to severe malnutrition.”

He said medical staff were “losing a large number of wounded people every day due to the lack of blood units, amid a continuous and massive influx of casualties every minute”.

Abu Salmiya added: “We are asking nothing from the world except for the immediate entry of blood units into the Gaza Strip … now, not tomorrow.”