The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it had transferred 32 patients out of the besieged Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza but feared for the patients and medics still inside.
WHO staff said the scenes around the hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis were “indescribable”, while calling the conditions inside ripe for the spread of disease.
Israeli troops entered the Nasser hospital on Thursday, following days of fighting around the complex. It is the chief hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
“The dismantling and degradation of the Nasser Medical Complex is a massive blow to Gaza’s health system,” the WHO said in a statement.
After being denied access to the hospital on Friday and Saturday, the WHO said it led two life-saving missions to transfer 32 critical patients, including two children, from the complex on Sunday and Monday.
The missions also provided small supplies of essential medicines and food for remaining patients and staff.
The transferred patients were moved to other hospitals and to field hospitals in the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in four ambulances.
