Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 4th Jan. Gemma Connell, a team leader from UN aid coordination office on Wednesday reported continuing airstrikes across Gaza and “intense ground battles” between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters Hamas in refugee camps in central areas that have left many dead.
OCHA report indicated that airstrikes and missiles struck dwellings and public buildings on Tuesday including Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis killing five, among them a 5 day-old baby.
Gemma Connell, in a video posted on X said “No child in the world should be killed, let alone one sheltering under the emblem of a humanitarian organisation; this has to end,”.
According to Ms. Connell, the hospital was “clearly marked” with the logo of the Palestinian Red Crescent.
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 14,000 people were sheltering at the health facility when it was shelled twice, attacks condemned by him.
“I deplore today’s strikes on the Al-Amal hospital…which severely damaged the Palestine Red Crescent Society training centre located within the hospital complex,” Tedros wrote on X.
Tedros described the hospital bombardment as “unconscionable”. “Gaza’s health system is already on its knees, with health and aid workers continuously stymied in their efforts to save lives due to the hostilities.”
He said many of those sheltering at Al-Amal when it was shelled had now left, those remaining were “extremely fearful for their safety and planning to leave a place they had turned to for refuge and protection”.
Dr. Ayadil Saparbekov, WHO Team Lead for Health Emergencies was speaking from the facility in a video posted on X said under international humanitarian law the hospital “should be a protected space and today it was hit twice”, during a UN assessment mission to the hospital that indicated extensive damage.
“The war should stop, the healthcare workers and health facilities should be protected.”
UN aid coordination office OCHA in the latest humanitarian update described “heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land and sea across most of the Gaza Strip” on Tuesday, along with continued rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian armed forces.
It noted clashes on the ground were also reported in the southern town of Khan Younis, along with “heavy strikes” in Gaza city to the north.
OCHA highlighted reports of multiple fatalities in areas where Palestinians had relocated to, “following orders from Israeli forces to move from northern Gaza”.
According to Gaza’s health authority, the UN humanitarian update said that 207 Palestinians had been killed from 1 to 2 January, and another 338 people injured.
The war has claimed 22,185 Palestinian fatalities in Gaza about 70 per cent are believed to be women and children. Up to 7,000 people are missing, with many presumed to be buried under the rubble between 7 October and 2 January.
According to the Israeli military, 171 soldiers have been killed, and 983 soldiers injured since the ground invasion of Gaza.
