Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says medical facilities have once again become 'battlegrounds' in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
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Israel must stop targeting Palestinian medical facilities, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general has said, a few days after Israeli forces raided one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza.
The Israeli army detained more than 240 people at Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday, including the director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya — whom it accused, without providing evidence, of being a Hamas operative.
MedGlobal, the humanitarian organisation that employs Abu Safiya, called the raid part of an “alarming and egregious pattern of targeting medical personnel and spaces”, while the WHO described it as part of a “systematic dismantling of the health system”.
Writing on X on Monday, the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for Dr Abu Safiya’s immediate release.
“Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat,” Dr Tedros said.
“We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Ceasefire!”
In an update on Gaza’s healthcare sector, Dr Tedros said that the Al-Ahli Hospital and Al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza City were attacked on Monday, while four patients were detained as they were transferred from the Indonesia Hospital to the Al-Shifa Hospital.
Seven patients and 15 caregivers and health workers remained at the Indonesian Hospital, which is severely damaged and longer able to provide care, he added.
In the almost 15 months since Hamas’ deadly 7 October attack on Israel, more than 45,400 Palestians have been killed — more than half of them women and children — and 108,000 others injured. Nearly 2 million people have been displaced.
Aid workers have warned that many Palestinians in Gaza are facing plunging temperatures without blankets or warm clothing.
On Sunday, Jumaa al-Batran, a 20-day-old baby, became the fifth person to die from hypothermia in Gaza, according to its Ministry of Health. The child’s twin brother, Ali, remains in intensive care.