Tel Aviv , Dec 9 (IANS): The Gaza Ministry of Health on Saturday said that the Israel army was not allowing the wounded Palestinians to be taken to hospitals.

Ashraf Al Qedra, spokesman of the Ministry of Health said that the Israeli forces were preventing the arrival of ambulances to evacuate the wounded and martyrs from the areas where its military forces are present, and the wounded are bleeding to death.

He said that IDF was committing massacres and genocide of entire families in schools and residential neighborhoods.

The statement said that only 313 bodies of the deceased and only 558 injured people reached hospitals during the past hours and a large number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads.

The spokesman said that the death toll from the Israeli aggression since the start of the Israeli invasion has risen to 17,487.

He said that 70 per cent of the victims of the Israeli aggression are children and women.

The statement said that the Israeli military was still arresting 36 health personnel from the Gaza Strip, including the Director General of Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya in harsh and inhumane conditions

Qedra said,"The Israeli occupation carries out genocide crimes in schools and surveys residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza and puts its hospitals out of service."

He adds, "The health situation in the south is extremely catastrophic, and hospitals have lost their capacity in departments and intensive care, and the occupancy there has reached 262 per cent.

The statement said that Blood banks have lost virus testing for blood units, and blood units are being transferred without testing. The spokesman said, "We call on international institutions to intervene urgently to provide protection, medicines and fuel to the Shifa Medical Complex and hospitals in northern Gaza in order to enable medical teams to restart them and rescue the wounded and sick."

The statement appealed to all parties to provide a safe humanitarian corridor in order to ensure the flow of medical supplies and fuel and the exit of hundreds of wounded daily.

The Gaza Ministry of Health in the statement called on international bodies to provide urgent field hospitals to northern Gaza and requested

International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization to take immediate action to release health personnel detained by the Israeli occupation forces.