UNITED NATIONS – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today reiterated his call for a ceasefire amid dramatic loss of life in hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations chief expressed his concerns in a statement released by his spokesman Sthéphane Dujarric, while Al-Shifa Hospital is at the center of Israeli Defense Forces operations.
Tel Aviv troops claim Hamas has set up a command center beneath the health facility, a claim disputed by medical staff.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there were 135 attacks on health facilities in Gaza last month.
According to WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris, this is the highest value recorded in such a short period of time.
“I hope this is the worst thing we’ve ever seen,” he lamented.
Harris warned of a “growing trend” of attacks on healthcare that is also evident in other ongoing conflicts in Sudan and Ukraine.
“It seems that the idea that a hospital should be a safe haven, a place where people come for treatment when they need it, has somehow been forgotten,” he told reporters.
The spokesman described the facility’s staff as heroic for continuing their efforts while the center has been operating without electricity since November 11 and there is a lack of food and drinking water.
About 700 patients and more than 400 health workers were still there, in addition to about three thousand displaced people seeking refuge there.
According to Harris, 20 patient deaths have been recorded in the last 48 hours.
According to media reports on Tuesday, the Israeli military offered to provide incubators for Al-Shifa Hospital, where 36 premature babies require constant care.
In the last three days, at least six premature babies died because their incubators could not function due to a lack of electricity.