ZURICH (Reuters) – The director-general of the World Health Organization called on Monday for an end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza after Israel bombed one and raided another in the past few days.
“Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlefields and the health system is under severe threat,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on the X website.
“We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarian workers need access to provide health assistance. Ceasefire!” He added.
The Israeli military said Hamas activists were the targets of an attack on Gaza City's Al-Wafa Hospital on Sunday, which the Palestinian Civil Defense said killed seven people.
Israeli forces also arrested more than 240 Palestinians, including dozens of medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital, on Friday, including the hospital director, Hussam Abu Safiya, according to health authorities in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli army.
The Israeli army said the hospital was being used as a command center for Hamas' military operations and that those detained were suspected activists. She added that Abu Safiya was taken for interrogation on suspicion of being a Hamas activist.
Tedros, who was trapped last week in an Israeli raid on Yemen's main airport that he said may have cost him his life, called for Abu Safiya's immediate release and said that Al-Ahli Hospital had also been attacked.
Tedros said that the World Health Organization and its partners delivered essential medical supplies, food and water to the Indonesian hospital in Gaza and transferred 10 patients in critical condition to Al-Shifa Hospital. He added that four patients were detained during the transfer.
“We urge Israel to ensure that their health care needs and rights are respected,” Tedros said.
At least 45,514 Palestinians have been killed and 108,189 others injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
