The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday that the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, has stopped functioning and deaths among patients continue to increase amid intense Israeli strikes in the northern part of the Hamas-controlled region. Hospitals in northern Gaza, which have already been struggling with power outages and fighting in the vicinity, have lately been blockaded by Israeli forces in the war against Hamas.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the United Nations health body has restored communications with its contacts at the Al-Shifa hospital, but added that the “situation is dire and perilous” there.
On Saturday (November 11), Hamas’s health ministry in Gaza said that three babies died at the neonatal unit of Al-Shifa hospital after it went out of service. One more person was killed by an Israeli shell in the intensive care, the Palestinian health ministry said.