The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) called on Monday for an end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza after Israel hit one and attacked another in recent days.
“Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under grave threat,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.
“We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Ceasefire!”
The Israeli military said Hamas militants were the targets of an attack on Gaza City’s Al Wafa hospital on Sunday, which the Palestinian Civil Defense said killed seven people.
An Israeli raid closed a major Gaza hospital on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Kamal Adwan Hospital was the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza and WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris says this ‘vital’ lifeline for local Palestinians has disappeared.
Israeli forces also arrested more than 240 Palestinians, including dozens of medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital, on Friday. Among those arrested was its director Hussam Abu Safiya, according to health authorities in the enclave and the Israeli military.
The Israeli military said the hospital was being used as a command center for Hamas military operations and those arrested were suspected militants. He said Abu Safiya was taken in for questioning because he was suspected of being a Hamas operative.
Tedros, who last week was caught in an Israeli strike against Yemen’s main airport that he said could have cost him his life, called for Abu Safiya’s immediate release and said Al-Ahli hospital had also faced attacks.
Tedros said WHO and partners had delivered basic medical supplies, food and water to the Indonesian hospital in Gaza and transferred 10 critical patients to Al Shifa hospital. Four patients were detained during the transfer, he said.
“We call on Israel to ensure that health care needs and rights are respected,” Tedros said.
At least 45,541 Palestinians have been killed and 108,338 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The war was sparked by a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli data.
