The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
A total of 645 people have died since 7 October and another 818 were injured as a result of these incidents, said WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic, his comments coming amid allegations that a nurse was shot and critically injured while inside an operating theatre at a hospital in Khan Younis.
“These attacks have affected 98 healthcare facilities including 27 hospitals damaged out of 36 and affected 90 ambulances, including 50 which sustained damage,” Mr. Jazarevic told journalists in Geneva.
Driven out
In its latest update on the crisis, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reported more “intense fighting” in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Thursday involving shelling and heavy gunfire.
Citing UN partner the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS), the UN aid coordination office said that Nasser hospital and Al Amal hospital – reportedly under siege for 17 days - had continued to be particularly badly affected by the violence which “is driving thousands of people” from the city further south, to Rafah.
Hospital focus
The OCHA update also relayed reports from the Gazan health authority of continuing “allegations of sniper shooting in the vicinity of Nasser hospital” and allegations that the Israeli military had prevented the movement of ambulances and access to Nasser hospital.
“On 8 February, a nurse was reportedly shot and critically injured while inside the operations room in Nasser hospital and two Palestinians were reportedly shot and killed in the vicinity of the hospital,” the OCHA update said. “On 7 February, a Palestinian woman was reportedly shot and killed while purportedly fetching water from Nasser hospital.”
West Bank escalation
Latest WHO data also highlighted the growing number of attacks on healthcare in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza-Israel war erupted on 7 October, after widely condemned Hamas-led terror attacks left 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals butchered and more than 250 taken hostage.
Some 364 attacks (on healthcare) have happened in the West Bank, resulting in 10 fatalities and 62 injuries, Mr. Jasarevic said. He noted that 44 health facilities had been affected, including 15 mobile clinics and 24 ambulances.
The latest toll from the fighting in Gaza is at least 27,840 fatalities with more than 67,300 injured, according to the local health authority. As of 8 February, 225 Israeli soldiers have been killed with 1,314 injured in Gaza since the beginning of the ground operation, according to the Israeli military.
Renewed famine fears
UN humanitarians continued to highlight that the risk of famine in Gaza is increasing “by the day”, particularly in northern Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of people there have been “predominantly cut off from assistance”, OCHA said, despite the fact that this is where the greatest needs are, with many reportedly grinding animal feed to make flour.
Since the onset of the crisis, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered 1,940 trucks - 19 per cent of all aid trucks, it said - carrying over 32,413 tons of life-saving food supplies.
The last time UNRWA was able to carry out a food distribution in the north of Wadi Gaza was 23 January, OCHA’s update noted.
Buffer rebuff
And as UN humanitarians reiterated deep concerns on Friday about any further escalation of fighting in overcrowded Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, insisted that any reported attempt by Israel to create a “buffer zone” with Gaza could constitute a war crime.
“Article 53 of the Geneva Convention prohibits destruction by the occupying power of property belonging to private persons, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations,” said OHCHR spokesperson Marta Hurtado. “Destruction carried out to create a buffer zone for general security purposes do not appear consistent with the …military operations.”
Commando comment
Asked for a reaction to an Israeli counter-terrorism operation inside a West Bank hospital that left three Palestinian militants dead late last month, Ms. Hurtado noted that the Israeli Security Forces had claimed that one of those targeted had a gun - “ a claim denied by hospital staff. No exchange of fire was reported. Under applicable international human rights law, firearms may only be used when strictly necessary to prevent an imminent threat to life or serious injury and is otherwise unlawful.”
STORY: Gaza update: WHO, OHCHR
TRT: 02 min 13s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 9 FEBRUARY 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley
- Wide shot: speakers at the podium during a press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tarik Jasarevic, UN World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson: “WHO has documented 721 attacks on health care in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October. Out of those 721, 357 attacks in the Gaza, resulting in 645 fatalities and 818 injuries.”
- Medium shot: press room with journalists
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tarik Jasarevic, UN World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson: “Health facilities are protected under international humanitarian law. And we keep really repeating our appeal to all parties to the conflict to respect that the health workers, ambulances, hospitals, patients should never be a target and should be protected.”
- Medium shot: press room with journalists
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tarik Jasarevic, UN World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson: “These attacks have affected 98 health care facilities, including 27 hospitals damaged out of 36, and affected 90 ambulances, including 50 which sustained damage.”
- Wide shot: press room with journalists
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Marta Hurtado, spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The (Israeli Security Forces) also claimed that one of them had a gun, a claim denied by hospital staff. No exchange of fire was reported. Under applicable international human rights law, firearms may only be used when strictly necessary to prevent an imminent threat to life or serious injury and is otherwise unlawful.”
- Wide shot: press room with journalists
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Marta Hurtado, spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits destruction by the occupying power of property belonging to private persons, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations. Destructions carried out to create a buffer zone for general security purposes do not appear consistent with the narrow military operations.”
- Medium shot: press room with journalists, interpreters working.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: ‘People are losing hope’ as aid access is refused to north, warns UNRWA
Besieged northern Gaza is a place of dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood packs – a situation that’s “nothing short of catastrophic”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence & Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Sudan’s displaced have endured “unimaginable suffering” in their search for shelter from the country’s ongoing war, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza
Despite ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.