WHO: Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital a 'Death Zone', Urges Full Evacuation

Al-Shifa hospital - File Photo/Reuters
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WHO: Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital a 'Death Zone', Urges Full Evacuation

Al-Shifa hospital - File Photo/Reuters

The World Health Organization said Sunday it had led an assessment mission to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and determined it was a "death zone", urging a full evacuation.

"WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families," the United Nations health agency said in a statement, adding that 291 patients and 25 health workers remained inside the hospital.

WHO said it had headed a joint UN team, including public health experts, logistics officers and security staff from a range of agencies on a short and "very high-risk" mission into the hospital on Saturday.

The assessment team had gone into Al-Shifa after the Israeli military had earlier ordered the evacuation of some 2,500 displaced people sheltering on the hospital grounds, WHO said.

"They, along with a number of mobile patients and hospital staff, had already vacated the facility by the time of the team's arrival," the statement said, AFP.

Columns of sick and injured -- some of them amputees -- were seen making their way out of Al-Shifa hospital Saturday towards the seafront without ambulances along with displaced people, doctors and nurses, as loud explosions were heard around the complex.

The UN assessment team was meanwhile only able to spend an hour inside the hospital due to the security situation.

The team, WHO said, described the hospital as a "death zone" and the situation as "desperate".

"Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and were told more than 80 people were buried there," the statement said.

A lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid over six weeks had caused the largest and most advanced hospital in Gaza to basically stop functioning as a medical facility, WHO said.

"Corridors and the hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, increasing the risk of infection."

Among the patients remaining in the hospital were 32 babies "in extremely critical condition", WHO said.

There were also two people in intensive care without ventilation, 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment was severely compromised, and many trauma victims.

Several patients had died in the past two to three days "due to the shutting down of medical services", WHO said.

The UN health agency said that given the state of the hospital, the team was asked to evacuate health workers and patients to other facilities.

"We are working with partners to develop an urgent evacuation plan and ask for full facilitation of this plan," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, former Twitter.

"We continue to call for protection of health and of civilians," he said, lamenting that "the current situation is unbearable and unjustifiable. Ceasefire. NOW."

WHO said additional missions would go in "over the next 24–72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage" to help transport patients to the Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in southern Gaza.

It stressed though that those hospitals were already working beyond capacity and the new referrals would "further strain overburdened health staff and resources".

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its militants carried out unprecedented attacks inside Israel on October 7.

The army's relentless air and ground campaign has since killed 12,300 people, most of them civilians, including more than 5,000 children, according to the Hamas government which has ruled Gaza since 2007.



UN Says ‘Deliberate’ Choices ‘Systematically’ Depriving Gazans

04 June 2025, Palestinian Territories, Nusirat: Displaced Palestinians gather in a charity kitchen to receive aid amid a shortage of food, in Nuseirat refugee camp. (Belal Abu Amer/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
04 June 2025, Palestinian Territories, Nusirat: Displaced Palestinians gather in a charity kitchen to receive aid amid a shortage of food, in Nuseirat refugee camp. (Belal Abu Amer/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
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UN Says ‘Deliberate’ Choices ‘Systematically’ Depriving Gazans

04 June 2025, Palestinian Territories, Nusirat: Displaced Palestinians gather in a charity kitchen to receive aid amid a shortage of food, in Nuseirat refugee camp. (Belal Abu Amer/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
04 June 2025, Palestinian Territories, Nusirat: Displaced Palestinians gather in a charity kitchen to receive aid amid a shortage of food, in Nuseirat refugee camp. (Belal Abu Amer/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)

The UN aid chief said Wednesday that recent "horrifying scenes" of Gazans being killed while seeking food aid were the result of "deliberate choices that have systematically deprived" them of essentials to survive.

A US and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in the Gaza Strip announced the temporary closure of its facilities on Wednesday, with the Israeli army warning that roads leading to distribution centers were "considered combat zones".

The announcement by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation follows a string of deadly incidents near the distribution sites it operates.

On Tuesday, 27 people were killed in southern Gaza when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF aid site, with the military saying the incident was under investigation.

"The world is watching, day after day, horrifying scenes of Palestinians being shot, wounded or killed in Gaza while simply trying to eat," UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement.

"Emergency medical teams have confirmed treating hundreds of trauma cases. Yesterday alone, dozens were declared dead at hospitals after Israeli forces said they had opened fire.

"This is the outcome of a series of deliberate choices that have systematically deprived two million people of the essentials they need to survive."

He echoed the call by UN chief Antonio Guterres for immediate independent investigations, saying they were not isolated incidents, and the perpetrators must be held accountable.

"No-one should have to risk their life to feed their children," said Fletcher.

The GHF began operations a week ago, but the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

Meanwhile the United Nations has described the amount of aid allowed into Gaza, after Israel partially lifted a more than two-month total blockade, as a trickle.

"We must be allowed to do our jobs: we have the teams, the plan, the supplies and the experience," said Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

"Open the crossings -- all of them. Let in life-saving aid at scale, from all directions. Lift the restrictions on what and how much aid we can bring in.

"Ensure our convoys aren't held up by delays and denials. Release the hostages. Implement the ceasefire."