A UN official said that the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli war were “beyond collapse,” while the World Health Organization expressed its concern about the Israeli occupation forces’ exposure to the organization’s teams in the Strip, calling for the protection of all workers, after the arrest of Kamal Adwan Hospital Director.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned yesterday, Tuesday, that the humanitarian conditions in the devastated Gaza Strip were “beyond collapse,” calling for respect for international rights standards.
Turk told reporters in Geneva that it is difficult to find words strong enough to describe the conditions in Gaza.
He stressed that the conditions are “very dangerous,” noting that it is extremely difficult to find expressions to describe the extent of the danger, wondering whether the phrase “extremely dangerous” suffices. He stressed that things are “on the verge of collapse, or even beyond collapse.”
For his part, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said – in a post on the X platform – that the Israeli army stopped the organization’s mission to the National Hospital in Gaza twice on Saturday and detained a number of members of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
He added that he was deeply concerned about the prolonged searches and detention of health workers, which put the lives of vulnerable patients at risk.
Ghebreyesus also expressed his concern over reports of a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza after days of siege.
He urgently called for the protection of everyone in the hospital, as well as for an immediate ceasefire and sustainable humanitarian access to health facilities throughout the Gaza Strip.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the occupation forces arrested Ahmed Al-Kahlot, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, and took him to an unknown destination, after storming the hospital and detaining medical staff.
The Ministry stated in a statement that the occupation forces released 5 doctors and women health personnel, explaining that they took more than 70 health personnel to an unknown destination.
She indicated that the occupation forces asked the remaining cadres to gather all patients and staff in one building and evacuate the other buildings.
In addition to medical staff, there are 65 wounded and 12 sick children in child care without electricity, water, or food in the hospital.
The organization said earlier yesterday that only 11 hospitals out of 36 in Gaza are partially operating, one in the north of the Strip and 10 in the south.
Ghebreyesus said that the hospital, located in northern Gaza, an area largely deprived of humanitarian aid since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza in October, was operating on a very limited basis even before the blockade, due to lack of water, fuel and supplies.
The Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip since the seventh of last October, which as of Tuesday evening left 18,412 dead and 50,100 wounded, most of them children and women, massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.