An Israeli bombardment at the Al-Aqsa hospital in the Gaza Strip killed four people and wounded seventeen others, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday via X, while the Israeli army announced that it had targeted its “command center”. of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization, an ally of Hamas.

In his second message, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that 21 patients died at Shifa Hospital, pre-war the largest health structure in the Palestinian enclave, where, as he pointed out, there is now only one bottle of water left for every 15 patients.

Regarding Al-Aqsa, he said that a WHO team was on the ground “when a tent in the courtyard of the hospital was hit in an Israeli bombardment. Four people were killed and (another) 17 were injured.” He did not give details about the victims, however he assured that the WHO staff members are safe.

The Israeli military earlier reported via X that its aircraft “struck a Palestinian Islamic Jihad command center and terrorists (…) in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Deir al-Bala area.”

In this “precision strike” “the Al-Aqsa hospital building was not damaged and its operation was not affected”, he added.

According to Dr. Tedros, the WHO team had gone to this hospital to do a needs assessment and receive incubators to be sent to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Sifa

At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, in the northern part of the enclave, which was once again the scene of fierce fighting in the Israeli army’s March 18 operation on the compound, Dr. Tedros described a catastrophic humanitarian situation.

Israel claimed when it launched the operation that “high-level Hamas terrorists” were hiding in the hospital.

“21 patients died after the hospital was besieged on March 18. The hostilities continue around the hospital, according to updates from the Sifa hospital, who works as a health worker inside it,” the head of the WHO emphasized.

In the remnants of the health center, 107 patients remain, among them 4 children and 28 people in critical condition, in an unsuitable building, while the staff does not even have the basic means to provide care: “no diapers, no catheters and urine collectors, no water to cleanse the wounds.”

“Many have infected wounds and are dehydrated. As of yesterday (i.e. the day before Saturday), there is now only one bottle of water left for every 15 people,” continued Dr. Tree.

“Infectious diseases are spreading because of the unsanitary conditions” and “food is extremely limited.”

Humanitarian corridor?

After October 7, when Hamas’s military arm launched an unprecedented attack on southern sectors of Israeli territory, Israel’s civil-military leadership vowed to eliminate Hamas and has been launching relentless bombardments of the Palestinian enclave, including destroying much of the health infrastructure.

According to the WHO, only ten hospitals in the Gaza Strip remain in operation, a minima, from 36 before the war broke out, which this month marks half a year.

The hospitals are also a refuge for thousands of Gazans whose homes have been leveled or fled to escape the shelling and fighting.

The Palestinian enclave is under almost total siege and NGOs, as well as the UN, accuse Israel of not allowing sufficient humanitarian aid to enter, on which almost the entire population (2.4 million people) in the Gaza Strip depends. Most of the citizens have gathered in the south, in and around the town of Rafah.

Aid groups also accuse the Israeli military of blocking or slowing down missions to the worst-hit areas, especially the northern Gaza Strip.

“We urge Israel to urgently facilitate access and (allow) a humanitarian corridor to be established so that WHO and its partners can transport patients to save. We repeat: every moment counts. Cease-fire!” concludes the post of Dr. Tedros.

More than 1,160 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the attack by Hamas’ military arm on Israeli territory on October 7, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

In Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, at least 32,782 people have lost their lives, the majority of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Islamic movement.