Northern Gaza without functioning hospital: WHO

Northern Gaza no longer has any functioning hospitals due to the “immense impact” of recent attacks from Israel as a result of its war with Hamas, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general announced Wednesday.

Al-Ahli Hospital was northern Gaza’s “last functioning hospital” until earlier this week, when the WHO learned it no longer could perform surgery for those injured, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.

Ghebreyesus said Al-Ahli is “overwhelmed” with patients in need of emergency care and that bodies had to be placed in rows in its courtyard since they could not be given safe burials.

“That has left north Gaza with no functional hospital. Only four hospitals operate at a minimum level, providing very limited care,” Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Ghebreyesus also described the WHO and United Nations’ missions in Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa hospitals, where teams delivered medicine, IV fluids and surgery supplies. The teams additionally helped treat those injured and supported women giving birth, he said.

“However, colleagues struggled to describe the immense impact recent attacks have had on these health facilities, and the catastrophic conditions remaining patients and health workers face,” Ghebreyesus wrote.

Ghebreyesus reiterated his call for a humanitarian cease-fire to allow for the delivery of medical services and restocking of health facilities. He added that “above all,” he hopes a cease-fire will “stop the bloodshed and death.”

Israel’s war with Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, has raged on for more than two months since the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, which left about 1,200 people dead. Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 20,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, per The Associated Press.

Coupled with limited food, water, and fuel supplies, the World Food Program (WFP) warned Wednesday that “humanitarian operations” are “at risk.”

WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau said last week there is a “serious bottleneck” of supplies at the Rafah border, which crosses from Egypt into Gaza. While some aid convoys have been permitted to enter Gaza, the war has posed major challenges for humanitarian organizations, he added.

“Ten weeks in, the conflict in Gaza shows no signs of abating. Humanitarian access has significantly diminished, with a breakdown in the basic services needed to run operations and aid workers struggling to survive the conflict while carrying out their duties,” the WFP wrote in a statement.