UN condemns Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital that killed six, injured 27

UN officials have condemned an Israeli air strike on Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip that killed six people, injured 27 others and caused extensive damage to the medical facility.

Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ad interim, on Thursday said he was deeply alarmed by the attack.

The strike hit the hospital’s surgical department. A medical worker, patients and their companions were among the dead, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“The ongoing violence and recent increase in military operations exacerbate the immense human suffering in Gaza and jeopardize the increasingly fragile ceasefire,” Alakbarov said.

Under international humanitarian law, all parties are obliged to protect and respect medical personnel and facilities, including hospitals, which must not be targeted or used for military purposes, he stressed.

Alakbarov reiterated his call for rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Gaza’s health facilities are lifelines for its people that must be protected and never militarised or attacked.

Yet since October 2023, WHO has documented more than 1,000 assaults on healthcare in the Strip.

“The best medicine is peace,” he said, stressing that health needs in the enclave “remain immense” as winter sets in.

On Thursday, a separate strike hit the vicinity of UN facilities in Deir al-Balah where staff are sheltering. All staff were accounted for.

  WAM