Ground and air assaults by the Israeli forces have now rendered Gaza’s second-largest hospital nonoperational.
The besieged enclave’s Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday said the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis is no longer functioning after a weeks-long siege that intensified this week, followed by deadly raids.
“There are only four medical staffers currently caring for patients” inside the hospital, ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Reuters news agency on Sunday.
In a post on X, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said the organisation’s team has not been permitted by the Israeli military to enter the hospital since Friday to assess the condition of critical patients and medical needs, even though they reached the hospital along with partners to deliver fuel.
“There are still about 200 patients in the hospital. At least 20 need to be urgently referred to other hospitals to receive health care; medical referral is every patient’s right,” he said, adding that “the cost of delays will be paid by patients’ lives”.
In the past few days, Israeli soldiers had raided the hospital, where displaced Palestinians were also sheltering. The Health Ministry on Saturday said Israeli forces “arrested a large number of the directors and staff” of the hospital while they were tending to the wounded.
On Friday, the ministry said an aid convoy led by the United Nations was detained for seven hours and prevented from reaching the hospital.
