By Beyza Binnur Donmez
GENEVA (AA) – The World Health Organization (WHO) lost contact with staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza following reports of an Israeli artillery and gunfire attack on the facility early Friday morning, injuring several people.
“Since this morning’s reports of a raid of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern #Gaza, we have lost touch with the personnel there,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X Friday noon, adding: “This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there.”
Several medical staff members were injured when the Israeli army again targeted the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, with artillery shelling and gunfire, and soldiers later stormed the health facility, damaging its critical life-saving equipment.
The Israeli army also bombed the hospital's main oxygen station, rendering it inoperable, Medical sources told Anadolu.
Before the latest Israeli attack, Tedros noted in his statement that WHO and its partners managed to reach Kamal Adwan Hospital late Thursday night amid hostilities and transferred 23 patients and 26 caregivers to Al-Shifa Hospital.
According to the WHO chief, the team also delivered 180 units of blood, trauma and surgical supplies, and medicines for over 5,000 patients.
He said that the hospital has been overflowing with close to 200 patients -- a constant stream of horrific trauma cases, as well as hosting hundreds of people seeking shelter.
"Accessing hospitals across Gaza is getting unbelievably harder and exposes our staff to unnecessary danger," Tedros said.
He reiterated his call for an immediate cease-fire and protection of hospitals, patients, health professionals and humanitarians.
"Everyone in Gaza needs peace," he underscored.
Israel has continued a devastating offensive on Gaza since an attack in October of last year by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
More than 42,800 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 100,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the territory’s entire population amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.