‘Nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s health facilities ceased functioning’: UN

RAFAH, Gaza Strip: Nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s health facilities have ceased functioning amid a massive and deadly increase in Israeli airstrikes in the territory, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

A total of 46 out of 72 health care facilities — including 12 out of 35 hospitals — have stopped functioning across Gaza, the WHO said. Palestinian health officials said the lack of electricity and fuel to power generators from an Israeli blockade, as well as damage from airstrikes, has forced many of the facilities to close.

Gaza health officials said more than 700 people had died in Israeli airstrikes over the past day.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the attack. A third small aid convoy entered Gaza on Monday carrying only a tiny fraction of the supplies aid groups say is necessary.

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Tamira Alrifai, spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said the 54 trucks that entered Gaza over the last several days was a “trickle” compared to the 500 trucks a day that entered before the war. She said U.N. negotiators were “very, very far away” from getting an agreement to send the sustained aid into Gaza that is needed.

With Israel still barring the entry of fuel, the U.N. said aid distribution would soon grind to a halt when it can no longer fuel trucks inside Gaza. Hospitals overwhelmed by the wounded are struggling to keep generators running to power lifesaving medical equipment and incubators for premature babies.

On Tuesday, Israel said it had launched 400 airstrikes over the past day. The Palestinian official news agency, WAFA, said many of the airstrikes hit residential buildings, some of them in southern Gaza where Israel had told civilians to take shelter.

An overnight strike hit a four-story residential building in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least 32 people and wounding scores of others, according to survivors.

Israel has killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors and around 1,100 women, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. That includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week. The toll has climbed rapidly in recent days, with the ministry reporting 436 additional deaths in just the last 24 hours.