“What Israeli forces are doing in besieged north Gaza cannot be allowed to continue,” said Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement posted on the social media platform X.

Hospitals have been hit, health workers detained and first responders prevented from rescuing people trapped under the rubble, she noted.

“Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,” she added.

According to reports, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since Israeli security forces renewed their offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced again.

“The entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying,” Ms. Msuya warned.

“Such blatant disregard for basic humanity and for the laws of war must stop.”

Siege ends at key hospital ‘at heavy cost’

The head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) also voiced deep concern over the situation, highlighting the severe impact on healthcare.

In a post on X, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the situation as “catastrophic”.

“Intensive military operations unfolding around and within healthcare facilities and a critical shortage of medical supplies, compounded by severely limited access, are depriving people of life saving care,” he said.

He also noted that the Gazan health ministry informed WHO that the siege at Kamal Adwan Hospital – one of the last minimally functioning hospitals in the north – has ended, “but it came at a heavy cost.”

Following the detention of 44 male staff members, only female staff, the hospital director and one male doctor are left to care for nearly 200 patients in desperate need of medical attention.

Protect hospitals at all times

Reports that hospital facilities and medical supplies were damaged or destroyed during the siege are deplorable, Mr. Tedros said.

“The whole health system in Gaza has been under attack for over a year. WHO cannot stress loudly enough that hospitals must be shielded from conflict at all times. Any attack of healthcare facilities is a violation of international humanitarian law.”

He added that the only path to safeguard “what remains of Gaza’s collapsing healthcare system” is through an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

“Lives depend on it!” he stressed.