GENEVA, Switzerland: The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that two weeks of Israeli military attacks have caused widespread destruction of many buildings in Gaza’s largest hospital, with many properties damaged or reduced to ashes.
Israel has made Gaza’s largest hospital an “empty shell” with many bodies, the World Health Organization said.
Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City’s al-Shafa Hospital on Monday after a two-week military offensive in which they said they were fighting the Palestinian group Hamas inside what was once the most important medical complex in the Palestinian territories.
After several failed attempts since March 25, a WHO-led mission finally gained access to the hospital on Friday, the UN health agency said on Saturday, describing widespread destruction.
“WHO and partners managed to reach al-Shifa — once the backbone of the health system in Gaza, which is now an empty shell with human graves after the latest siege,” agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
He said the team had seen “at least five dead bodies during the mission”.
“Even restoring minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible,” he said, adding that “an in-depth assessment by a team of engineers is needed to determine if the remaining buildings are safe for future use”.
Tedros said efforts by the World Health Organization and other aid groups to restore basic services at al-Shafa after Israel’s first devastating attack on the hospital last year have now collapsed and people are once again denied access to life-saving medical services.
According to the WHO, only 10 of the 36 main hospitals in Gaza are partially operational.
Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza, pushing its population, especially the residents of northern Gaza, to the brink of starvation.
According to the UN report, the Israeli war has internally displaced 85% of the population of the Gaza Strip due to the severe lack of food, clean water and medicine, and 60% of the infrastructure in the area has been damaged or destroyed.
Tedros said urgent action was needed in Gaza because famine is looming, disease is widespread and trauma is mounting.
He called for the protection of the remaining medical facilities in Gaza and the protection of medical and humanitarian workers.
The Director General of the World Health Organization called for unimpeded access to humanitarian aid in and across the Gaza Strip and “ceasefire”.
Tedros lamented that efforts by WHO and other aid groups to revive basic services at al-Shifa after Israel’s first devastating raid on the hospital last year are now lost, and people are once again deprived of access to lifesaving health care services.
