1 in 1 patients who were in Nasser Hospital and managed to leave arrive in Rafah Photo: Mohammed Salem/Portal Patients who were in Nasser Hospital and managed to leave arrive in Rafah arrive in Rafah Photo: Mohammed Salem/Portal
The second largest hospital in the Gaza Strip “is no longer functional,” said the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, this Sunday (18).
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, was attacked by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) last Thursday (15) to remove suspected terrorists. There are still around 200 patients in hospital. Of these, 20 people urgently need to be transferred to other hospitals.
“Nasser Hospital in Gaza is no longer functional after a weeklong siege that was followed by a sustained attack. Both yesterday and the day before, WHO staff were not allowed into the hospital to assess patients' conditions and urgent medical needs. “We are arriving at the hospital complex to deliver fuel together with partners,” the WHO director said in a statement Published on X
However, The military operation disrupted the hospital's oxygen and fuel supplies. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, five patients died.
The hospital invasion had two goals: to capture terrorists suspected of being directly involved in the October 7, 2023 attacks and to rescue possible hostage bodies.
The invasion led to Arrest of 100 terror suspects inside the medical center, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. There is no information about the recovery of the bodies.
On the day of the hospital raid, the Israel Defense Forces reported that the operation was preceded by “efforts to evacuate hospital residents to reduce harm to bystanders.” The IDF opened a passage to evacuate civilians.
The Israel Defense Forces also said it had acted in accordance with international law “and against the terrorist organization Hamas, which operates from hospitals and civilian infrastructure in a systematic and cynical pattern of operations without distinguishing between the civilian population and the organization's terrorists.”
The Israeli army says it has arrested 100 terror suspects at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis
On February 7, after Israel rejected a ceasefire proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army's next focus would be Rafah, a region home to more than a million Palestinians displaced since the start of the war.
UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres said he was alarmed by reports of a ground offensive on the city.
Two days later, on February 9, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army to prepare a plan to evacuate civilians from the city of Rafah in the far southern Gaza Strip.
Rafah, which lies on the GazaEgypt border, is considered the last refuge for around 1.5 million people almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip who have fled the north since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas center and others Cities in the south of the Palestinian territory due to bombings and ground actions by the Israeli army.