Anadolu via Getty ImagesThe World Health Organization (WHO) says Israel’s ground offensive in central Gaza has compromised its efforts to continue working, after its facilities came under attack.
The UN agency accused Israeli forces of attacking a building housing its staff and their families in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday and mistreating those sheltering there. Its main warehouse was also attacked and destroyed.
The Israeli military has not yet commented.
Its first major ground operation in Deir al-Balah since the start of the war with Hamas 21 months ago has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, amid warnings of a severe hunger crisis across the territory.
The UN said on Monday it was receiving reports of malnourished people arriving at clinics and hospitals in extremely poor health, while the Hamas-run health ministry said 19 people had died from malnutrition since Saturday.
On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of six city blocks in southern Deir al-Balah, warning that it would be operating “with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure”.
The estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people living in the affected areas were instructed to head south towards the al-Mawasi area in the south of the territory.
The UN’s humanitarian office said UN staff would remain in Deir al-Balah despite the evacuation order, spread across dozens of premises whose co-ordinates had been shared with Israel, and stressed that they had to be protected.
On Monday night, the WHO put out a statement saying it condemned “in the strongest terms” attacks on its facilities.
It said the WHO staff residence was attacked three times, and that staff and their families, including children, were “exposed to grave danger and traumatized after air strikes caused a fire and significant damage”.
“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,” it added.
“Two WHO staff and two family members were detained. Three were later released, while one staff member remains in detention.”
The WHO demanded the immediate release of its detained staff member and the protection of its other staff, who have been relocated with their families to its office in Deir al-Balah.
The WHO’s main warehouse in the city was damaged after “an attack caused explosions and fire inside”, the organisation said. The warehouse was later looted by desperate crowds, it added.
The agency did not attribute blame for the attack, but said it was “part of a pattern of systematic destruction of health facilities”.
The WHO warned that its operational presence in Gaza was “now compromised, crippling efforts to sustain a collapsing health system and pushing survival further out of reach for more than two million people”.
There has been no comment yet from the Israeli military on the attacks on the WHO’s premises or on the wider offensive in Deir al-Balah.
But Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday that troops were operating to “establish a corridor that will cut through the city, severing it from the al-Mawasi area and preventing free movement between central Gaza refugee camps where the Israeli army has no ground presence”.
According to the UN, about 87.8% of Gaza is now covered by Israeli evacuation orders or is within Israeli militarized zones, leaving the 2.1 million population squeezed into about 46 sq km of land where essential services have collapsed.
Israeli sources say that the possible presence of Israeli hostages held by Hamas is one reason why Deir al-Balah has so far not been the target of a ground offensive. At least 20 of the 50 hostages still in captivity are believed to be alive.
Hostages’ families have expressed concern that an offensive could endanger them.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 59,029 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.
