The World Health Organization has expressed “horror” at the “substantial destruction” of the Kamal Antoine hospital in the northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli military operation which, according to its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, claimed the lives of “at least 8 patients”.

“Many health workers have been arrested and WHO and its partners are urgently seeking information on their situation,” underlined Dr. Tree through X.

Reacting to the message of the head of the organization, also through X, the Israeli delegation to the UN agencies in Geneva reprimanded Dr. Tedros that he “doesn’t say” that “Hamas was inside the hospital”.

Before the Israeli army “entered the (hospital) complex, there was a dialogue in coordination with the medical teams,” Chahal “allowed a humanitarian window to exist and most of the hospital was evacuated,” Israeli diplomacy added.

The version of the head of the WHO is very different: “We learned that many patients had to be hurriedly removed on their own, at great risk to their health and safety, as it was not possible to get ambulances to the facility.”

“Among the deceased patients, several died due to lack of proper care, including a nine-year-old child,” he continued.

“We are extremely worried about the fate of evacuees who had taken refuge inside the hospital,” he pointed out.

“The health system in Gaza was already on its knees and the loss of one more hospital, even if it was operating at its minimum capacity, is a very hard blow,” he added.

Health infrastructure in the Gaza Strip has suffered extensive damage due to shelling and ground operations by the Israeli army in retaliation for Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern sectors of the Israeli territory on October 7. This attack left 1,140 dead, most of them civilians, while 240 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip by fighters of the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Since then the Israeli army has been relentlessly shelling the densely populated Palestinian enclave, with the death toll, according to the Hamas Health Ministry, reaching 18,800 dead, of which 75% were women and children.

Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals — which in theory have special protection status under the law of war — to hide weapons or set up underground command centers.

At that particular hospital, Kamal Antoine, claimed the Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva, Chahal “arrested 90 terrorists in the area,” including some “of those who committed the October 7 terrorist attack.”

“Israel also destroyed terrorist infrastructure and found many weapons and documents with information, especially in the nursery and inside incubators,” according to the same source.

The Israeli delegation accused the WHO of “not condemning” the use of hospitals by the military arm of Hamas.