WHO Decries Israel’s ‘Harrowing' Strike on Gaza's Maghazi Refugee Camp

Tuesday, 26 December 2023 3:10 AM

Men recover the body of a victim killed after an Israeli airstrike, at the al-Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza Strip, on December 25, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

The World Health Organization has denounced a recent airstrike by the Israeli regime on a refugee camp in the besieged Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of at least 70 Palestinians.

"WHO's team heard harrowing accounts shared by health workers and victims of the suffering caused by the explosions," the UN health agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a Monday post on X social media platform.

"One child had lost their whole family in the strike on the camp. A nurse at the hospital suffered the same loss, with his entire family killed," he added.

His remarks came a day after an Israeli airstrike targeted the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central part of Gaza, which has been the subject of a genocidal war by the regime since October 7.

Following the attack, Gaza's Health Ministry said the strike had destroyed a "residential block," adding that the "toll is likely to rise" given the large number of families residing there and the fact that many people were still under the rubble.

Describing the Israeli attack on Sunday, the ministry's spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, "What is happening at the al-Maghazi camp is the annihilation of an entire residential square."

An Israeli airstrike kills at least 70 civilians at a refugee camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip.

"Palestinian health authorities reported that 70 people were killed, while Al-Aqsa Hospital staff reported receiving around 100 casualties," Tedros said, adding, "The hospital is taking in far more patients than its bed capacity and staff can handle."

"Many will not survive the wait," the WHO's head warned, insisting that "this latest strike on a Gazan community shows just why we need a #CeasefireNOW."

The senior UN official noted, "WHO is extremely concerned about the unbearable strain that escalating hostilities are putting on the few hospitals across Gaza that remain open – with most of the health system decimated and brought to its knees."

The regime launched its onslaught on Gaza following an operation by the territory's resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm.

At least 20,674 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the regime's aggression so far.