The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza.
The WHO said its staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.
On Monday, Israeli tanks for the first pushed into southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.
In its daily update, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.
“Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,” the WHO said.
Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X. It said three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention. Its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff.”
Deir al-Balah is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and the capabilities of the militant group Hamas.
But the area is also the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated territory and Gaza health officials have warned of potential “mass deaths” in coming days from hunger.
The WHO describes the health sector in Gaza as being “on its knees”, with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent mass casualty influxes from Israeli attacks.
It said its main warehouse, located within an evacuation zone, was damaged on Sunday by an attack that triggered explosions and a fire inside. It said it would remain in Deir al-Balah and expand its operations despite the attacks.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, who earlier said two UN guesthouses had been struck, said the attacks had happened “despite parties having been informed of the locations of UN premises, which are inviolable. These locations – as with all civilian sites – must be protected, regardless of evacuation orders.”
UN secretary-general António Guterres was appalled by an accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions in Gaza “where the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing,” Dujarric said.
“Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and by other humanitarian organizations,” he said.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said the agency’s local head in Gaza, Jonathan Whittall, had decided to remain in Deir al-Balah. Last week Israel said it would not renew Whittall’s visa beyond August, claiming he was biased against Israel.
In a series of posts on X early on Tuesday, Whittall said the territory was witnessing “conditions of death” and that “This death and suffering is preventable. And if it’s preventable, but still happening, then that suggests to me that it’s intentional.”
Unrwa, the UN refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said on X it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have soared.
“Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses, Unrwa has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale,” it said.
Deir el-Balah resident Abdullah Abu Saleem, 48, told AFP on Monday that “during the night, we heard huge and powerful explosions shaking the area as if it were an earthquake”.
He said this was “due to artillery shelling in the south-central part of Deir el-Balah and the south-eastern area”.
The spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP it had “received calls from several families trapped in the Al-Baraka area of Deir el-Balah due to shelling by Israeli tanks”.
Early on Tuesday health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured when Israeli tanks fired on tents housing displaced families at al-Shati camp in western Gaza City. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
In southern Gaza, the health ministry said an Israeli undercover unit had on Monday detained Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza’s field hospitals and the health ministry spokesperson, in a raid that killed a local journalist, Tamer al-Zaanein, and wounded another outside a field medical facility run by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC had treated patients injured in the incident, but did not comment further on their status. It said it was “very concerned about the safety and security” around the field hospital.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Monday more than two dozen western countries called for an immediate end to the war, saying suffering there had “reached new depths”.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar condemned the countries’ statement, saying any international pressure should be on Hamas, while US ambassador Mike Huckabee called the joint letter “disgusting”.
With Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse