Israel on Thursday accused the World Health Organization of collusion with Hamas by ignoring Israeli evidence of the "terrorist use" of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar told the WHO's executive board that there could not be health care in the Palestinian territory when Hamas "embeds itself in hospitals and uses human shields".
In "every single hospital that Israel searched in Gaza, it found evidence of Hamas' military use," she said.
"These are undeniable facts that WHO chooses to ignore time and time again. This is not incompetence; it is collusion."
On X, formerly Twitter, the ambassador insisted there was evidence of Hamas's "terrorist use" of hospitals.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of having tunnels under hospitals and using the medical facilities as command centres, a charge denied by the group.
WHO has previously said it could not confirm the allegations, AFP reported.
Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, told reporters on December 21 that "we on our missions have not seen anything of this on the ground", adding that WHO was "not in a position to assert how any hospital is being used".
"The role of WHO is to monitor, analyse and report... We are not (an) investigating organization."
But Eilon Shahar alleged the UN health agency "knew hostages were held in hospitals and that terrorists operated within".
"Even when presented with concrete evidence of what was happening below ground and above ground ... WHO chooses to turn a blind eye, jeopardising those they are meant to protect."
The ambassador addressed a WHO executive board session on the organization's work in health emergencies.
Listing hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the ambassador said Hamas forces "managed operations" from the Indonesian Hospital, "and the Israeli army found five murdered hostages in a tunnel dug underneath".
She said hostages were brought through the front of the Al-Rantisi children's hospital on October 7 and then held in the basement.
At Kamal Adwan Hospital, "80 terrorists surrendered themselves to Israeli soldiers, and weapons were found hidden inside incubators", she said.
