The World Health Organization (WHO) said Israel’s offensive in central Gaza has compromised its efforts to continue working, after its facilities came under attack.
The UN agency accused Israeli forces of attacking a staff residence in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday and mistreating those sheltering there. Its main warehouse was also attacked and destroyed.
The WHO said one of its staff detained by troops during the raid on the residence was still being held and demanded their immediate release.
The Israeli military said it detained “several individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism” in the area and that most were released.
The first major Israeli ground operation in Deir al-Balah since the start of the war has displaced tens of thousands of civilians, amid warnings of a severe hunger crisis.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said yesterday 15 people, including four children, had died from malnutrition across the territory over the past 24 hours.
The UN also said it had received growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition and warned that “the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing”.
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On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of six city blocks in southern Deir al-Balah, warning that it would be operating “with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure”.
The estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people living in the affected areas were instructed to head south towards the al-Mawasi area in the south of the territory.
The UN’s humanitarian office said UN staff would remain in Deir al-Balah despite the evacuation order, spread across dozens of premises whose co-ordinates had been shared with Israel, and stressed that they had to be protected.
On Monday night, the WHO put out a statement saying it condemned “in the strongest terms” attacks on its facilities.
It said the WHO staff residence was attacked three times, and that staff and their families, including children, were “exposed to grave danger and traumatized after air strikes caused a fire and significant damage”.
“Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,” it added.
“Two WHO staff and two family members were detained. Three were later released, while one staff member remains in detention.”
The WHO demanded the immediate release of its detained staff member and the protection of its other staff, who have been relocated with their families to its office in Deir al-Balah.
The WHO said its main warehouse in the city was damaged after “an attack caused explosions and fire inside”. The warehouse was later looted by desperate crowds, it added.
The agency did not attribute blame for the attack, but said it was “part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities”.
The WHO warned that its operational presence in Gaza was “now compromised, crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system and pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people”.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Tuesday its troops had come under fire in the Deir al-Balah area and “responded toward the area from which the shooting originated”.
Without mentioning the WHO, the IDF said it had warned civilians to evacuate beforehand and had also been “in contact with the international organisations working in the area”.