The hospital ship USNS Mercy returns to its homeport at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego in February after completing a deployment in the Pacific. (Megan Alexander/Navy)

WASHINGTON — A group of Democrats in the Senate is urging President Joe Biden to consider deploying two Navy hospital ships to provide medical aid to the devastated Gaza Strip.

The senators are proposing the U.S. send the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea as part of a ramped up effort to supply “desperately needed medicine and medical equipment” to civilians in the war zone.

The two Navy ships would provide 2,000 hospital beds as the territory faces famine and a lack of functioning hospitals due to Israel’s fight against Hamas militants.

“The crisis on the ground has only worsened after Israeli raids on hospitals, and continued fighting has created fuel shortages that put hospitals out of commission,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Biden. “Doctors now worry that their only options are ‘displacement, detention or death.’”

Five senators signed the letter, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Peter Welch of Vermont.

They stressed the U.S. could do much more to help people suffering in Gaza and said the Biden administration needs to use all available resources to drastically increase humanitarian support.

Americans who fled Gaza as well as medical personnel who worked there have described dire medical conditions, “even by the standards of war-ravaged regions,” according to the letter.

Medical staff are treating patients on floors instead of beds and one doctor was forced to amputate his niece’s leg at home without anesthesia after she was hit by an Israeli tank. One woman gave birth in a latrine by her tent while another gave birth in the streets amid rubble.

Sixteen of the 22 health centers operated by the United Nations are no longer operational and the last remaining hospitals do not have the medicines and supplies needed to be considered “fully operational,” according to the letter. No hospitals have the capacity to provide critical trauma care.

The senators said Biden should mobilize airlifts of medicine and medical equipment directly to the remaining functional hospitals in Gaza and work with allies to establish additional field hospitals.

“The U.S. has recently helped fund one field hospital in Rafah and there is room to expand on that progress,” they wrote, referring to a facility set up in the southern Gaza Strip.

Norfolk, Va. (December 21, 2022) - USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) returns home to Naval Station Norfolk after completing ship support for Continuing Promise 2022, Dec.21, 2022. Continuing Promise 2022, a joint, multi-national military and civilian effort, provided humanitarian assistance to partner nations in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility by providing medical care to people in need. ( Ryan Carter/Navy )

The senators said the U.S. also needed to seek assurances from the Israeli government that it will protect medical infrastructure and personnel. The World Health Organization has documented 410 attacks on health care in Gaza since October that have killed nearly 700 people and damaged nearly 100 facilities.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led raid into southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of nearly 250 others. The war in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of the enclave, according to Gazan health authorities.

“A sea change is desperately needed,” senators said. “It is critical that the United States leverage its unique capabilities to urgently and dramatically ramp up medical support to the people of Gaza.”

The U.S. military is heavily involved in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza through ongoing air drops of meals and the construction of a floating pier off the coast of Gaza to provide food and other supplies. The pier is expected to be completed within weeks.

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Twitter: @svetashko