New Delhi: Dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded in an Israeli air strike on a refugee camp in northern Gaza and the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of a looming public health catastrophe.
The director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital told Al Jazeera that more than 50 Palestinians were killed and 150 wounded in Israeli air strikes on the populated Jabalia refugee camp area.
According to Al Jazeera, the refugee camp covers an area of only 1.4 square kilometres but houses some 116,000 registered refugees. The Israeli military has repeatedly struck the camp since the start of the war, the report said.
The Gaza health ministry said that at least 8,525 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 8 and two-thirds of those killed are women and children. At least 3,542 children and 2,187 women were among the dead.
The health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said 130 healthcare staff were killed and 15 hospitals are now out of service.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said the escalation of conflict between Israel and armed Palestinian groups will only increase the immense suffering of civilians.
I am deeply alarmed by the intensification of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.
With too many Israeli and Palestinian lives already lost, this escalation only increases the immense suffering of civilians.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 31, 2023
A WHO official told a press briefing in Geneva that people in Gaza are facing a looming “public health catastrophe.”
Israel tightened its blockade on the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people, following the Hamas terror attacks on October 7.
Although more than 150 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies have been allowed to enter the territory from Egypt over the past few days, aid workers say it’s not enough.
Damage to water and sanitation infrastructure, overcrowding and mass displacement are compounding an already dire humanitarian situation in the territory, they say.
The WHO spokesperson said fuel was urgently needed to run generators at clinics, to treat water and for emergency vehicles.