Al-Shifa hospital, packed with patients and displaced people and struggling to keep operating, has been a major focus of global concern this week.
Israel says Hamas has stored weapons and ammunition and is holding hostages in a network of tunnels under hospitals like al-Shifa, using patients and people taking shelter there as human shields. Hamas denies this.
With the war about to enter its seventh week, there is no sign of any let-up despite international calls for a ceasefire or at least for humanitarian pauses.
A UN human rights official said on Friday that Israel must allow water and fuel into Gaza to restart the water supply network.
“Every hour that passes with Israel preventing the provision of safe drinking water in the Gaza Strip, in brazen breach of international law, puts Gazans at risk of dying of thirst and diseases,” Pedro Arrojo-Agudo said.
The World Health Organization said it was very worried about the spread of disease, citing more than 70,000 reported cases of acute respiratory infections and over 44,000 cases of diarrhoea, far more than expected.
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Man arrested after car strikes barricade near Israeli embassy in Tokyo
Man arrested after car strikes barricade near Israeli embassy in Tokyo
The conflict was triggered by a cross-border raid by Hamas militants on October 7 that killed about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
More than 11,500 Palestinians, at least 4,700 of them children, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory military assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, a toll that far surpasses previous bouts of conflict in recent years.
Israel has vowed to wipe out the militant group. Whole neighbourhoods of Gaza have been flattened in air and artillery strikes, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, and the humanitarian situation is catastrophic, aid agencies say.
Trucks suspended
The United Nations said there would be no cross-border aid operation on Friday due to fuel shortages and a communication shutdown. For a second consecutive day on Thursday no aid trucks arrived in Gaza due to lack of fuel for distributing relief.
World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said nearly the entire population was in desperate need of food assistance.
Israel says tunnel shaft, weapons discovered at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital
Israel says tunnel shaft, weapons discovered at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital
“Supplies of food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza and only a fraction of what is needed is arriving through the borders,” she said.
“With winter fast approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters, and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation.”
Reuters journalists have been unable to reach anyone inside Shifa hospital for over 24 hours.
Hamas said on Thursday that claims by the United States that the group uses al-Shifa for military purposes was “a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman”.
What lies ahead as Israel sets sights on southern Gaza in next phase of war?
What lies ahead as Israel sets sights on southern Gaza in next phase of war?
Israeli officials had said Hamas held some of the 240 hostages in the hospital complex.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Hamas’s Al-Quds Brigades said they had engaged Israeli forces for several hours in the city of Jenin overnight into Friday, unleashing a “torrent of fire” and laying ambushes with explosives.
Israel’s military said that war planes struck militants in Jenin who had opened fire on Israeli soldiers. It said at least five militants were killed.
At least 178 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the October 7 attack on Israel. The violence has underscored fears that the territory, seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War, could spiral out of control in tandem with the conflict in Gaza.