Gaza hospital hit as Israel tells UN aid agency ties to be cut

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry has said Israeli forces were bombarding the last partially functioning hospital in the territory’s north, as Israel formally notified the UN it is cutting ties with the main aid agency for Palestinians.

Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza, Israel launched a major air and ground assault nearly a month ago, a year into its war against the Islamists.

Rescuers and UN agencies say hundreds of people have been killed and the area has been left desperately short of essential supplies.

Gaza’s health ministry said Israeli forces were “continuing to violently bombard and destroy Kamal Adwan Hospital”.

Hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh said in a statement the situation was “catastrophic”, with several staff injured.

“We do not understand the purpose behind this bombing that is targeting the hospital.”

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said six child patients were injured in the strike on the hospital, which he described as “appalling”.

Israel’s military said it was checking the report.

Separately, it said troops “are continuing to operate against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the northern and central Gaza Strip”.

Earlier Monday Israel issued formal notification that ties with UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, would be cut after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation vital to Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The ban sparked global condemnation and came after the United States in mid-October warned Israel it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to Gaza within 30 days.

“There is simply no alternative to UNRWA,” WHO chief Tedros said in a video posted on X Monday, adding that the “ban will not make Israel safer”.

Israel has accused a dozen of UNRWA’s roughly 13,000 employees in Gaza of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas which triggered the Gaza war.

“On the instruction of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministry of foreign affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA,” a ministry statement said.

Katz was quoted as saying UNRWA was “part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution”.

The letter sent by Israel to the president of the UN General Assembly, dated November 3 and seen by AFP, said the ban would come into effect “following a three-month period”.

Jonathan Fowler, an UNRWA spokesman, told AFP the move would be disastrous.

“If this law is implemented, it would be likely to cause the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip—an operation of which UNRWA is the backbone,” Fowler said.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X that an average of just 30 trucks daily were allowed into Gaza last month.

The UN has said around 500 trucks entered every day before the war.

Hamas said it showed that Israel was a “rogue state”.