“Since this morning’s reports of a raid of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, we have lost touch with the personnel there,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on the social media platform X.
“This development is deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there,” he added.
North Gaza has been under an intense military operation with thousands of civilians said to be cut off from humanitarian aid and protection, amid dwindling food and other life sustaining essentials.
Tedros said Kamal Adwan Hospital “has been overflowing with close to 200 patients – a constant stream of horrific trauma cases”, and hundreds of displaced people are also seeking shelter there.
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, described the reports as “very concerning”.
Medical aid mission
The raid occurred a day after WHO and partners managed to reach Kamal Adwan Hospital amid the ongoing hostilities in the north.
Dr. Peeperkorn was on the “complex mission” which lasted for more than 20 hours, he said, speaking from Deir Al-Balah to journalists attending the bi-weekly UN humanitarian briefing in Geneva.
The team transferred 23 patients and 26 caregivers south to Al-Shifa Hospital, located in Gaza City.
They also delivered 10,000 litres of fuel, 180 units of blood, and trauma surgery and alcohol supplies to cover 1,600 interventions to Kamal Adwan.
Al-Shifa also received lab supplies, anaesthesia, medicines and antibiotics were also delivered to Al-Shifa Hospital to cover the health needs of 6,000 people.
Patients are being transferred between hospitals as part of a two-day mission amid hostilities and access restrictions in Gaza.
Hospital staff ‘completely overwhelmed’
Dr. Peeperkorn provided an eyewitness account of what he had seen.
At a checkpoint close to Kamal Adwan, there were “thousands of women and children leaving the area, walking, limping, with their few belongings towards Salah al-Din and, actually, towards Gaza City,” he said.
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“We saw very few men or adolescent boys,” he continued. “We saw men being screened.”
At Kamal Adwan, the team “saw mayhem and chaos” , he said, noting that during his last visit on 21 and 22 October, 75 to 100 patients were at the facility.
“Now, there were probably more than 200 patients. The emergency ward was overflowing, and we saw numerous patients being brought in…horrific trauma patients.”
Meanwhile, staff are “completely overwhelmed” and “also very much underequipped to deal with that.”
Dr. Peeperkorn noted that Kamal Adwan is one of two hospitals in the north that WHO defined as being “minimum functional”. He understood that the other facility, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, is very isolated and barely functioning.
Polio campaign halted
The WHO official also updated journalists on the massive UN-run polio campaign in Gaza, which was postponed in the north this week.
Children there were to be vaccinated with a second dose of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2, following a first round conducted last month.
He said that to interrupt poliovirus transmission “at least 90 per cent of all children in every community and neighbourhood must be vaccinated”.
The campaign has already reached some 452,000 children in the centre and the south, which he called a “huge achievement”.
The north is “the last lap”, however escalating violence, intense bombardment, displacement orders and lack of assured humanitarian pauses have forced the campaign to be delayed.
“We want to cover these 119,000 children in the north as well, as we did in the first round,” Dr. Peeperkorn said, stressing the need for “access to all children, wherever they are, to make sure that you get to this 90 per cent coverage”.
He insisted that “we are almost there”, adding that “we still have good hopes that we can do this campaign.”