UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Gaza hospital attack

No evacuation order given before Kamal Adwan Hospital strike, says WHO

One of the last partially functional health centres in northern Gaza was reportedly hit again overnight into Friday by several strikes, leaving four health workers among the casualties and the dead, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

“All night, there was heavy bombing around the Kamal Adwan Hospital”, said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the UN health’s agency Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Speaking from Gaza to journalists in Geneva, he reported that an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank was seen outside the hospital early in the morning, around 4am, while people were told to move out the health centre. “There was no official evacuation order,” he maintained, only rumours that spread panic. “People started to climb the wall to escape, and this panic attracted IDF fire. There are reports of deaths and arrests.”

The UN health agency official maintained that few aid supplies and emergency health teams have reached Kamal Adwan since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in Gaza's far north early October. This has left the hospital without most supplies, including fuel.

After seven weeks of unsuccessful attempts and denied humanitarian missions, an international Emergency Medical Team (EMT) with basic supplies was finally deployed to Kamal Adwan “less than a week ago”, explained Dr. Peeperkorn. The team comprised two surgeons, two emergency nurses, one gynaecologist and one logistician. The EMT deployment had been denied at least five times in the past few weeks. Their mission was cut short.

“They are just there, and within one week they are gone again. This is not only for me incomprehensible but also incredibly, incredibly sad,” said Dr. Peeperkorn, who added that no surgeons remain at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Since October 2023, 58 per cent of the 273 WHO-led missions inside Gaza have been either denied, cancelled or impeded.

This has added to the urgent but extremely difficult task of evacuating patients who need medical support. Since 7 Oct 2023 and the start of the war sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel, 5,325 patients have been evacuated from Gaza. Almost 5,000 travelled via the Rafah crossing before its closure last 7 May, including 4,000 children. The UN health agency estimates that at least 12,000 patients across Gaza still need medical evacuation to survive. Only 378 have been evacuated since the closure of Rafah.

At least 44,612 Palestinians have been killed and 105,834 wounded since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian health authorities. The majority of those killed were women and children.

Ends

Gaza hospital attack - WHO

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