WHO to evacuate Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital after bombardment by Israel

The World Health Organization (WHO), says it plans to evacuate patients from Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, as it had become a “death zone,” following constant bombardment by Israel’s army.

The WHO, in a statement on Sunday, said its assessment came after a visit by officials and other UN officials to the hospital, which Israeli troops raided earlier this week in pursuit of Hamas militants.

In the statement, WHO described the hospital as a “death zone, with a mass grave at the entrance and nearly 300 patients left inside with 25 health workers.”

“Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, has been a key focus in recent days, with Israeli forces alleging Hamas uses it as a command centre,” the statement said.

READ ALSO:Israeli Army reveals dozens of terrorists killed in Gaza

Adding to the need for an urgent evacuation of the remaining patients, a Hamas health official said more than 80 people were killed on Saturday in twin strikes on a northern Gaza refugee camp, including on a UN school sheltering displaced people.

“A strike on Saturday on another building in Jabalia camp killed 32 people from the same family, 19 of them children,” an Hamas health official said.

“The Israeli army’s relentless air and ground campaign has since killed 12,300 people, more than 5,000 of them children, according to the Hamas government, which has ruled Gaza since 2007,” a UN official told a news conference on Saturday night.

The UN official said so far, 1.6 million people have been displaced inside the Gaza Strip in six weeks of fighting, while Israel’s military was “expanding its operational activities in additional neighbourhoods of the Gaza Strip.”

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