Al Shifa Hospital in ruins after a two-week siege. Seven aid workers killed in Gaza: UN again calls on Israel to respect international law Peace and Security
The UN strongly condemns the killing of seven workers of the humanitarian NGO World Central Kitchen in Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza. In this regard, representatives of UN humanitarian agencies on Tuesday again expressed concern that “there are no safe places left in Gaza.”
“This is not an isolated incident,” said UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) Jamie McGoldrick. – As of March 20, at least 196 aid workers have been killed in the OPT since October 2023. This is almost three times more than the annual number of personnel killed in any other conflict.”
McGoldrick reiterated his call for all parties, including the Israeli government, to respect international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on humanitarian personnel.
“The role of humanitarian workers is to alleviate the suffering of people in crisis situations. Their safety, as well as the safety of the civilians they help, must be guaranteed,” he added. deaths of employees of the World Central Kitchen in Deir el-Balah. UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths also expressed his outrage at the attack, calling the dead “heroes who were killed as they tried to feed the hungry.”
World Health Organization (WHO) spokeswoman Margaret Harris said the humanitarian mission had been pre-approved by Israeli authorities and that the NGO’s vehicle had identification marks.
Hospital in ruins
Referring to the destruction of Al Shifa Hospital after a two-week siege by Israeli forces, Harris said the facility, which will no longer function, was the “heart” of the enclave’s health care system.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, she said Al-Shifa was now “in ruins” and that at least 21 patients had died during the IDF siege of the hospital.
According to a WHO statement, aid teams had previously waited days for Israeli permission to reach the damaged hospital, where staff and patients were living in “horrifying” conditions.
According to a WHO spokeswoman, due to the deteriorating security situation, medical staff were forced to transfer patients to office premises where there were no toilets, water or food. She also noted that staff did not have access to medicine to care for patients, many of whom were seriously injured and required intensive care.
Access Denied
If permission to visit al-Shifa and other health facilities in northern Gaza is granted on Tuesday, WHO’s priorities will be the delivery of medicines, fuel and food supply, and needs assessment.
According to Harris, in the past few days, WHO has been denied attempts to organize visits to assess the situation in the northern areas of the enclave.
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To date, hundreds of health workers have been killed in the line of duty, the WHO spokeswoman noted. In total, 32 thousand civilians were killed in Gaza as a result of military operations, 70 percent of whom were women and children. Israeli bombing began following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages.
Deadly Malnutrition
WHO will also visit Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City, where there are reports of increasing numbers of low birth weight babies.
Currently the facility treats at least 15 malnourished children every day, Harris said in a statement, calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.
Two specialized nutrition centers in Rafah and one in Kamal Adwan provide assistance in cases of deadly malnutrition.
“Doctors report that they are seeing a significant increase in the number of low birth weight babies who are unable to survive because they are born too small,” Harris said.
Before the conflict, Gazans had sufficient food supplies and only 0.8 percent of children under five suffered from acute malnutrition. According to WHO, today in the northern provinces this figure ranges from 12.4 to 16.5 percent.