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Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #37 [EN/AR/HE]

Attachments

KEY POINTS

  • Bombardments and armed clashes around the Shifa hospital in Gaza city intensified since the afternoon of 11 November. Critical infrastructure, including the oxygen station, water tanks and a well, the cardiovascular facility, and the maternity ward, was damaged,and three nurses killed. While many internally displaced persons (IDPs) and some staff and patients have managed to flee, others are trapped inside, fearing to leave or physically unable to do so.*

  • At Shifa, two premature babies and ten other patients have died since the power outage that started on 11 November, compounded by the lack of medical consumables. Another 36 babies in incubators as well as kidney dialysis patients are at hightened risk of death. On 12 November, the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that it had lost communication with its contacts in Shifa.

  • On 12 November, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced that the Al Quds Hospital in Gaza city was no longer operational due to the depletion of available fuel and power outage.

  • On the afternoon of 11 November, an airstrike reportedly hit and destroyed the Swedish clinic in Ash Shati camp, west of Gaza city, were some 500 IDPs were sheltering. The casualty toll remains unclear. Overnight (11-12 November), another airstrike hit Al Mahdi Hospital in Gaza city, reportedly killing two doctors and injuring others.

  • Hospitals and medical personnel are specifically protected under international humanitarian law (IHL). They must not be used to shield military objectives from attack. Any military operation around or within hospitals must take steps to spare and protect the patients, medical staff, and other civilians. All feasible precautions must be taken, including effective warnings, which consider the ability of patients, medical staff and other civilians to evacuate safely. 

  • The building of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Gaza city and an UNRWA school in Beit Lahiya, both of which were hosting IDPs, were hit on 11 and 12 November, respectively, resulting in an unclear number of casualties.

  • The flight of tens of thousands of IDPs southwards from the areas north of Wadi Gaza (hereafter “the north”), through a “corridor” opened by the Israeli military, continued on 12 November.

  • Hundreds of thousands of people remaining in the north are struggling to survive. Consumption of water from unsafe sources raises serious concerns about dehydration and waterborne diseases. The World Food Programme (WFP) has expressed concern about malnutrition and starvation.

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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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