Israel is expanding its attacks in the Gaza Strip. A World Health Organization staff residence and camp have now apparently been targeted. UN officials have sharply criticized the attacks.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Israel's army stormed warehouses and a staff residence during its advance in the Gaza Strip. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Platform X that women and children of WHO staff were forced to flee on foot amid fighting.
Male WHO staff and relatives were handcuffed, searched, and interrogated at gunpoint during the incident in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Two staff members and two relatives were arrested, and three were released. One of them remains in Israeli custody, the WHO chief added. The organization is demanding his release.
Explosions in the WHO main warehouse
Deir al-Balah also houses the WHO's central warehouse for the Gaza Strip. This warehouse was already damaged on Sunday, as a result of an attack that resulted in explosions and a fire, Tedros wrote.
The other camps are also located in the area defined by Israel as a combat zone and are therefore no longer operating."This limits our ability to operate in Gaza and brings the health system in Gaza closer to collapse." A ceasefire is not only necessary but long overdue, he added.
Israel launches offensive in Deir al-Balah
The Israeli army initially declined to comment on the incidents. Tanks advanced into the southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Bala for the first time yesterday. The Israeli military had previously announced the expansion of its operations against the terrorist organization Hamas to the center of the Gaza Strip around the city of Deir al-Balah.
The army urged thousands of Palestinians to leave the affected neighborhoods and head toward Al-Mawasi. Israel defines the tented settlement on the Mediterranean coast as a safe haven for civilians. However, Israeli attacks have occurred there in the past, resulting in numerous deaths.
"The last lifelines are collapsing"
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres again condemned the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip after more than 21 months of war."The last lifelines that keep people alive are collapsing," said Guterres' spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. Guterres also lamented"the increasing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition."
Regarding reports that Israeli soldiers had recently shot civilians deadly in the vicinity of distribution centers run by the controversial GHF Foundation, Guterres said:"Over the weekend, Gaza saw further mass shootings and killings of people seeking UN assistance for their families – a cruel and inhumane act that I condemn in the strongest possible terms."
Reports of attacks near distribution centers
The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinians (UNRWA), Phillipe Lazarrini, described the GHF distribution centers as"sadistic death traps." "Snipers open fire indiscriminately on crowds as if they have a license to kill," he wrote on X.
According to the United Nations, hundreds of deaths have occurred at GHF distribution centers in the Gaza Strip since the end of May. The foundation, which is supported by Israel and the United States, has repeatedly dismissed such reports as false.
International criticism of Israel's actions
Israel claimed to have introduced the new distribution mechanism to prevent the radical Islamist Hamas from diverting aid. Critics, however, accuse Israel of partisan instrumentalization of vital aid. Previously, the UN operated around 400 distribution centers for the approximately two million Palestinians. These continue to barely function because Israel virtually prevents them from being delivered.
Yesterday, 25 countries, including Great Britain and France, called for an immediate end to the war. The suffering of the civilian population has"reached new levels," the states said in a joint statement. Germany is not among the signatories.
