The director general of the World Health Organization announced that Northern Gaza no longer has functioning hospitals. He described scenes of horror witnessed by aid workers in the ruins of two partially destroyed medical facilities.
Aid workers on a rare humanitarian mission to deliver supplies to Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa hospitals struggled to describe the immense impact recent attacks have had on these health facilities. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief, shared a statement on social media expressing the devastation witnessed by the aid workers.
Dr. Tedros also posted a video showing the dire conditions inside Al-Ahli, where patients have gone without necessary surgery and antibiotics. The aid workers found dead bodies lined up outside the hospital and severely injured civilians in pain inside the chapel.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs took part in the mission and stated that this was only the third humanitarian convoy to reach northern Gaza since a pause in fighting ended on Dec. 1.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli government did not immediately respond to the WHO’s claims. Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers, while the WHO and medical staff have denied these allegations.
Dr. Tedros is calling for a cease-fire to reinforce and restock remaining health facilities, deliver medical services, and stop the bloodshed and death. Both hospitals visited by the team of aid workers on Wednesday are unable to provide much more than first aid, leaving no working hospitals in northern Gaza.
Dr. Tedros described encountering 80 injured people, including children, sheltering in the hospital’s chapel and orthopedics department. He emphasized that a cease-fire is needed to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On Thursday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that only nine of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were even “partially functional” and that those in southern Gaza were operating at three times their normal capacity due to the influx of displaced people.