War between Israel and Hamas: French hospital ship Dixmude, treating wounded from Gaza, “completed its mission”

The hospital ship’s mission is completed. The helicopter carrier USS Dixmoud, mobilized to help wounded Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, has “completed its mission,” with some 120 seriously wounded receiving medical treatment on board in two months, the French Army General Staff said Thursday.

The ship is due to leave the Egyptian port of Al-Arikh, where it was moored about fifty kilometers from Palestinian territory, “by the end of the week,” either on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, State Major said in a press briefing.

The ship, which docked on November 27, ultimately treated about 120 seriously injured people. The figure is much lower than what President Emmanuel Macron announced in mid-January: Dixmude has “already cured more than 1,000 patients, children and adults,” he hailed during a televised press conference.

Is access limited to Israel?

Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who was present on the ship on December 31, appeared to regret that access to the ship, abandoned by Israeli authorities, was too limited. With patient flows ranging from “zero” to twenty a day, “we must treat more civilian casualties,” he insisted at the time.

The minister also announced “negotiations with a number of European countries, in particular the UK, Germany and other partner countries” to replace Dixmude, which were clearly unsuccessful. However, the Italian ship, also providing assistance to the wounded, remains in place.

The Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7 killed more than 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli data. As a result of the attack, about 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, about 100 of whom were released in late November during a truce in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

In response, Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas, which had held power in Gaza since 2007, and launched a massive military operation that killed 25,900 people, the vast majority of them women, children and teenagers. Ministry of Health of the Islamist Movement.

Health conditions are described as “catastrophic” by the UN and NGOs in the small landlocked area, where dozens of health infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged and medicines are missing.