Israel’s onslaught on health care and emergency services, crippling humanitarian access and attacks on civilians in Gaza are dismantling the very means of survival, UN humanitarians said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday issued the warning after the announcement by World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that following an Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital of North Gaza and the detention on Friday of its director, Hussam Abu Safiya, the facility closed, Xinhua news agency reported.
In a post on X, Ghebreyesus said that patients in critical condition were taken to the non-functioning Indonesian Hospital. Safiya’s location is unknown and the WHO Director-General called for his immediate release.
Amid ongoing chaos in northern Gaza WHO and partners today (Monday) delivered basic medical and hygiene supplies, food and water to Indonesian Hospital and transferred 10 critical patients to Al-Shifa Hospital,” Ghebreyesus said.
“Four patients were detained during the transfer. We urge Israel to ensure their health care needs and rights are upheld.”
He added that hospitals have become battlegrounds, and the health system is under severe threat.
He reported attacks on Al-Ahli and Al-Wafa Hospitals in Gaza City, both of which were damaged, and called to stop attacks on hospitals and to secure access to health care.
OCHA said that on Sunday, it joined the delivery with WHO, the World Food Programme (WFP), the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the UN Department for Safety.
The team reported that the hospital has no water, electricity or sanitation.
The office said the team’s mission to North Gaza was exceptional because most of the 150 mission attempts since October have been denied by the Israeli authorities. Even the few that were initially agreed to faced heavy impediments.
It said that between Friday and Sunday, three of four attempts to access the area were denied by Israeli authorities. Only the joint team effort was let through, but it faced significant impediments.
“It should not require breaking a siege to help survivors in critical need. Aid workers must be granted safe and unhindered access to assist people wherever they are.”
OCHA said humanitarian access remains systematically hindered across the Gaza Strip. Since Friday, more than 60 per cent of the 42 UN-coordinated movements were denied, interfered with or impeded on the ground.
The office said another constraint on delivering aid in Gaza is armed looting of humanitarian relief convoys.
Two incidents recorded over the past three days in southern Gaza affected dozens of truckloads of supplies and further exposed drivers to serious risks.
Fighting and Israeli restrictions on commercial and other imports also persist.
These continue to dangerously paralyse the humanitarian operation when families urgently need more food, shelter materials, and clothing to survive winter weather.
