War against Hamas
WHO warns of diseases in the Gaza Strip – deaths in attack on ambulances
A child in the Gaza Strip stands by the body bags of family members of senior Hamas member Ayman Nofal, who was killed last October
© AFP
Only bread and water, hours of waiting and poor hygiene – the people of the Gaza Strip are suffering. The World Health Organization (WHO) described the situation as “indescribable”. This creates an ideal environment for illness.
The lack of clean drinking water and sanitation creates an ideal environment for the spread of disease, Tedros warned, stressing that only 15 hospitals were still partially functioning.
WHO calls for immediate ceasefire
The WHO chief reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire or at least the establishment of humanitarian routes that would allow aid to be distributed more widely in the Palestinian territory. Due to the heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip, seven UN missions in the area had previously been canceled.
Meanwhile, an Israeli attack on a Red Crescent ambulance near the city of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip killed four rescue workers. “Four members of the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue team were killed when Israeli occupiers shelled an ambulance on Salah al-Din Street at the entrance to Deir al-Balah,” the organization said in a statement. The Israeli military initially did not comment on the incident when contacted by the AFP news agency.
The Salah al-Din highway was used by thousands of Palestinians to flee the Israeli military from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip.
According to Hamas, more than 23,000 dead in Gaza
Earlier, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said several people had been killed in an Israeli strike near a hospital in Deir al-Balah. According to information from the radical Islamic Hamas that cannot be independently verified, more than 23,350 people have died in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
The war was triggered by a brutal attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the USA, in which the fighters committed atrocities mainly against civilians. According to Israeli information, 1,140 people were killed, some brutally, and around 250 others were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. In response to the attack, Israel declared war on Hamas and has been massively attacking the Gaza Strip ever since.