Iran warns that determination to defend itself “has no limits”, Hezbollah speaks of “dangerous escalation”
Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, the situation is “catastrophic”, according to the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO). “The situation in the north of the Gaza Strip is catastrophic,” declared Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the social network X, stressing that “A severe shortage of medical supplies, coupled with extremely restricted access, is depriving people of vital care.”
The WHO director-general referred in particular to the situation in Kamal Adwan, the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, which was stormed by Israeli forces on Friday, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
According to the ministry, the attack on the Jabalia camp facilities, where Israel launched a major military operation earlier this month, caused the deaths of two children.
That department also accused Israeli forces of having detained hundreds of staff members, patients and displaced people.
The Israeli army said its forces were operating in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan, but said it had “not been informed of any live fire or attacks in the hospital area”.
According to Tedros Ghebreyesus, after the WHO temporarily lost contact with its staff at the hospital during the chaos, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that the siege had ended.
“But this came at a high price,” added the director general.
On Friday night, the WHO announced that three assistants and another professional were injured in the attack on the hospital and that dozens of assistants were detained at the health establishment, which housed around 600 people, including patients, assistants and others.
“After the arrest of 44 male employees, only one female employee, the hospital director and a male doctor remain at the hospital to care for almost 200 patients who desperately need medical care”, lamented Tedros Ghebreyesus today.
“The information about hospital facilities and medical equipment damaged or destroyed during the siege is deplorable,” he added.
According to the representative, “the entire health system in Gaza has been under attack for more than a year,” since the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering a war.
That attack killed 1,206 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to a count by the AFP agency based on official Israeli figures.
Dozens of hostages kidnapped that day continue to be held captive in Gaza by Hamas.
The Israeli retaliatory military campaign cost the lives of 42,924 people in Gaza, the majority of whom were civilians, according to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, which the United Nations (UN) considers reliable.
“The WHO reiterates – it cannot be stressed enough – that hospitals must always be protected from conflicts”, highlighted the director general of the UN agency.
Any attack on hospital facilities “is a violation of international humanitarian law”, he stressed, defending the only way to save what remains of Gaza’s health system, “which is collapsing, is an immediate and unconditional ceasefire”.
