Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 14th Nov. World health agency and humanitarians on Monday said that more patients, including premature babies, have died in Al-Shifa hospital which has no electricity after intensifying Israeli military operations, urging for a ceasefire.
WHO said that according to the Gaza health authorities, 37 premature babies at the hospital were relocated over the weekend to an operating room without their incubators as health workers tried to heat the room.
According to the latest media reports six babies at Al-Shifa have died.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation and despair.”
He reiterated calls for an immediate stop to the fighting.
Al-Shifa is the epicentre of armed clashes in Gaza City following claims by the Israeli military that Hamas has built a command centre under the hospital. The claims have been denied by medical
WFP chief Cindy McCain wrote on social platform X. “Today, we join the UN community in a moment of silence to mourn and honour our colleagues killed in Gaza,”
UNRWA said on Monday that its guesthouse in Rafah “sustained significant damage from Israeli Force naval strikes” on Sunday, with no reported casualties.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said “The disregard for the protection of civilian infrastructure including UN facilities, hospitals, schools, shelters and places of worship is testament to the level of horror that civilians in Gaza are living every day,”.
The UN has reiterated that humanitarians should never be a target, and that hospitals and medical personnel are specifically protected under international humanitarian law.
OCHA said in addition to the deceased infants, 10 other patients have died at Al-Shifa, while three nurses were killed amid bombing and armed clashes. Critical infrastructure, including the oxygen station, water tanks and a well, the cardiovascular facility and the maternity ward, has been damaged.
OCHA stressed that many internally displaced persons were sheltering at the hospital and some staff and patients have managed to flee, “others are trapped inside, fearing to leave or physically unable to do so”,
According to media reports thousands could still be inside the complex.
OCHA said that on Saturday an airstrike reportedly hit and destroyed the Swedish clinic in Ash Shati camp, west of Gaza city, where some 500 displaced persons were sheltering.
The Israeli airstrike hit Al Mahdi Hospital in Gaza city, reportedly killed two doctors and injured others.
OCHA said that on Sunday, after the collapse of services and communications at hospitals in northern Gaza, the Ministry of Health in Gaza did not update casualty figures.
The latest update provided on Friday showed that 11,078 people in Gaza Strip since 7 October.
According to Israeli official sources, 47 soldiers have been killed since the start of ground operations.
OCHA said that thousands of people in the north are struggling to survive
Consumption of water from unsafe sources “raises serious concerns” about dehydration and waterborne diseases, hunger is rampant.
WFP has sounded the alarm over risks of malnutrition and starvation.
Thousands of displaced persons continued over the weekend to flee the north through a “corridor” opened by the Israeli military but their lives were still at risk in the south amid ongoing bombing and desperately overcrowded shelters.
UNRWA head Mr. Lazzarini stressed “Nowhere in Gaza is safe”.
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