WHO reports Israeli military attack on Gaza staff residence
The United Nations agency said the WHO staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.
Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
'Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward Al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,' WHO said.
Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X, adding that three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention.
'WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff,' WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Deir al-Balah is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas.
WHO said its main warehouse, located within an evacuation zone, was damaged on Sunday due to an attack that triggered explosions and a fire inside.
WHO stated it will remain in Deir al-Balah and expand its operations despite the attacks.
Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Monday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticised the Israeli government's aid delivery model after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near sites distributing food.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population, and caused a humanitarian crisis.
The World Health Organization describes the health sector in Gaza as being 'on its knees', with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent mass casualty influxes. - Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
7 hours ago
- The Sun
Israel to allow airdrops of foreign aid into Gaza
DUBAI: Israel will allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza starting on Friday, Israeli army radio quoted a military official as saying. An Israeli military spokesperson did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the report. The Gaza health ministry says more than 100 people have died from starvation in the Palestinian enclave since Israel cut off supplies to the territory in March. Israel, which has been at war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza since October 2023, lifted that blockade in May but has restrictions in place that it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups. In the first two weeks of July, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF treated 5,000 children facing acute malnutrition in Gaza. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday Gaza was suffering man-made mass starvation caused by a blockade on aid into the enclave. - Reuters
The Star
10 hours ago
- The Star
Hospitals in Syria's Sweida struggling after sectarian clashes, WHO says
A health worker assists a man at a hospital, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces, in Syria's predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria July 25, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi GENEVA (Reuters) -The main hospital in the southern Syrian city of Sweida is overwhelmed with trauma patients and working without adequate power or water after the local Druze minority clashed almost two weeks ago with Bedouin and government forces. "Inside of Sweida, it's a grim picture, with the health facilities under immense strain," the World Health Organization's Christina Bethke told reporters in Geneva via video link from Damascus. "Electricity and water are cut off, and essential medicine supplies are running out." Many medical staff cannot reach their workplace safely, and the main hospital's morgue was full at one point this week as it dealt with a surge of trauma cases. At least 903 people were killed in the sectarian bloodshed, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, after clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes spilled into ferocious fighting between the Druze and government forces sent to quell the unrest. The Network's head, Fadel Abdulghany, has said the toll is not final, and that his group documented field executions by Syrian troops, Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze factions. Though the WHO has managed to deliver two convoys of aid in the last week, access remains difficult because tensions remain between the groups controlling various parts of Sweida governorate, it said. More than 145,000 people have been displaced by the recent fighting, the WHO said, with many sheltering in makeshift reception centres in Daraa and Damascus. (Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; editing by Kirsti Knolle and Kevin Liffey)
The Sun
11 hours ago
- The Sun
Sweida hospitals overwhelmed amid sectarian clashes, warns WHO
GENEVA: Hospitals in the southern Syrian city of Sweida are under immense pressure, following an escalation of sectarian clashes this month between the Druze - a religious minority native to the area - and Syrian Bedouin tribes. 'Inside of Sweida it's a grim picture with the health facilities under immense and water are cut off, and essential medicine supplies are running out,' World Health Organization representative in Syria Christina Bethke told reporters in Geneva via video link. - Reuters
