Today, Saturday, a team of experts led by the World Health Organization visited Al-Shifa Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip to assess the situation there. The team, which spent only one hour in the medical complex for safety reasons, calls it the “death zone.”

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter on Saturday that the team saw “a hospital that is no longer able to function: no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, and medical supplies are exhausted.” “ The World Health Organization says 291 patients remain in hospital, including 32 children in “extremely critical condition” and 25 health care workers. The organization said: “The World Health Organization and its partners are developing an urgent plan for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families.”

The group that visited the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip included health experts, logistics and security personnel from various branches of the United Nations. They pointed to the damage caused by the bombing and saw a mass grave at the entrance to the hospital. The World Health Organization reports that the team was told that there were more than eighty people in the grave.

Today, Wednesday, Israeli occupation forces stormed Al-Shifa Hospital. According to the Israelis, there is a Hamas command center under the complex. Hamas and the hospital board of directors contradict this matter. An Israeli army spokesman said on Saturday that he had responded to the hospital director’s request to cooperate in the evacuation. Hundreds of people are said to have left the hospital on foot, but patients who were unable to do so were left behind. (AP)

Also read this profile on Al-Shifa Hospital: the hospital that Israel claims laid the foundation for the underground “Hamas headquarters.”