WHO chief calls for end to Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals
Palestinian women mourn their children killed by Israeli bombardment at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on 18 November 2023
Stuti Mishra reports in The Independent on 30 December 2024:
The World Health Organization has called for an end to attacks on Gaza’s hospitals after Israeli forces struck a medical facility and raided another over the weekend.
Noting that hospitals in the besieged Palestinian territory have “once again become battlegrounds”, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for an immediate ceasefire and unhindered access to healthcare for the Palestinian people.
“The health system is under severe threat. We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals,” he said on Monday. “People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Ceasefire!”
The WHO chief’s remarks came after Israeli forces struck Gaza City’s Al-Wafa hospital on Sunday, killing seven people, according to the Palestinian civil defence.
The Israeli forces claimed the strike targeted Hamas militants operating a command centre within the hospital.
Earlier, on Friday, Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the last remaining health facilities in northern Gaza, and detained patients and medical staff, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
The military claimed they interrogated 950 people during the raid and found 240 to be militants. The hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, was detained for questioning as he was suspected of being a “Hamas operative”, the military alleged.
The Israeli raid rendered the hospital non-operational and left northern Gaza with a solitary functioning medical facility.
Israeli forces, meanwhile, ordered the remaining residents of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza to leave, triggering a fresh wave of displacement.