The World Health Organization managed to restore communications with employees of Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, the hospital no longer functions as a hospital,” Ghebreyesus added in the post.
WHO lost contact with the facility on Saturday. At that time, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said that operations at the Al-Shifa hospital complex, the largest medical facility in the Palestinian enclave, had been suspended after fuel supplies ran out.
US reaction
On Sunday, national security adviser to the US president Jake Sullivan stated that “the United States would like to avoid armed fighting inside Gaza hospitals and has conveyed its position on this matter to Israeli forces.”
– United States they don’t want to see shootings in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, get caught in the crossfire. We have been actively consulting with the Defense Forces on this matter Israel – Sullivan said in an interview with CBS News.
The White House representative also stated that there is no reliable data on the number of victims in the Gaza Strip and it is not known how many of the dead were civilians and how many were Hamas fighters. However, we know that thousands of innocent civilians died in the operations that began after October 7, he emphasized. He also reiterated the position that Israel has the right and obligation to fight Hamas, which poses a threat to it, but must do so in a manner consistent with the laws of war.
Main photo source: HAITHAM IMAD/PAP/EPA