A delegation of the World Health Organization (WHO) led a mission of experts that visited Al Shifa hospital in Gaza yesterday Saturday to perform an autopsy. Describing the situation as “hopeless” in a “death zone”, he described the hospital’s suspension and evacuation as inevitable.

According to the WHO – whose experts spent about an hour in Al Shifa – 25 doctors and nurses and 291 patients remain at the hospital. Among them are 32 infants in critical condition, 22 on dialysis and two patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).

“The World Health Organization and its partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families,” a statement said.

The envoys saw a hospital that was no longer able to function: “no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, with medical supplies running out,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a post on Platform X (formerly Twitter).

In the WHO announcement, it is highlighted that the vast majority of patients still hospitalized in Al Shifa have suffered severe fractures and amputations, burns, chest and abdominal injuries, while 29 patients face mobility problems and are unable to move without assistance. Many wounded are also at risk of serious infections due to the lack of antibiotics and poor sanitation.

At the entrance of the Al Shifa hospital, the experts saw a mass grave, where they were informed that around 80 dead people had been buried.