The World Health Organization said it had reconnected with staff at a besieged northern Gaza hospital, finding that three health workers had been injured and 44 had been detained.
Kamal Adwan, the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, “is still under siege, but we managed to contact the staff,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said late on Friday.
“Three health workers and one other worker have been injured, 44 health workers have been detained and four ambulances have been damaged,” he said.
On Friday, Gaza’s health ministry accused the Israeli army of attacking the Kamal Adwan hospital in the Jabaliya camp, where it launched a major operation earlier this month.
It said two children died in the raid, and accused Israeli forces of detaining hundreds of workers, patients and displaced people during the raid.
The Israeli military said that its forces were operating around Kamal Adwan, but that it was “not aware of live fire and attacks in the area of ​​the hospital”.
Amid the chaos, WHO said on Friday afternoon that it had lost contact with Kamal Adwan’s staff, after Tedros described the development as “deeply disturbing” in an earlier post on Twitter.
Tedros said WHO and partner agencies reached the hospital late on Wednesday and managed to transfer 23 patients and 26 caregivers to the main al-Shifa hospital in the Palestinian territory.
“Kamal Adwan Hospital is filled with about 200 patients – a continuing number of horrific trauma cases. It is also filled with hundreds of people seeking asylum,” he said.
In his second post, Tedros highlighted that, in total, “about 600 patients, health workers and individuals are currently sheltering in hospital”.
“The siege and attacks on health workers came just hours after a WHO-led mission delivered essential supplies to keep the facility running and serious patients were taken to Al-Shifa hospital,” he said.
“We urge the protection of hospitals, health workers and patients. Ceasefire!”
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