WHO confirms hundreds are dead from an attack on a Gaza hospital, reiterates call for Israel to reverse evacuation order

Beyond that vague assessment, there is little agreement, however. Palestinian officials have separately said it was an Israeli airstrike, while the Israel Defense Forces say that intelligence traces the attack to a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.

Preliminary estimates of deaths at Al Ahli Arab Hospital vary from 200 to 800, WHO officials said at an emergency press conference late Tuesday, and injuries are estimated to be in the hundreds. The hospital was operational, “with patients, health and caregivers, and internally displaced people sheltering there,” one official said.

The attack was “unprecedented in scale,” Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, a WHO representative for the area, said.

The WHO does not investigate the source of such attacks and therefore did not draw a conclusion as to its origin. Still, “international humanitarian law must be abided by, which means health care must be actively protected and never targeted,” one WHO official said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was midair during Tuesday’s press conference, flying back to Geneva from Asia, said Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s executive director of health emergencies, speaking in his stead.

Ghebreyesus, however, had been fully briefed, and has “already expressed his shock and condemnation,” Ryan said, adding that the director general was expected to make comments on the attack from Geneva the following day.

Al Ahli Arab Hospital was one of 20 hospitals in the north end of the Gaza strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military—an order the WHO and other agencies have said is impossible to carry out, due to insecurity in the area, the critical condition of many patients, a lack of ambulances, and a lack of alternative shelter.

Evacuation orders must be reversed, the WHO reiterated Tuesday in a statement sent to press.

Rafah border crossing still closed

The Rafah border crossing—the only entry point to Gaza, on its border with Egypt—is still not open, WHO officials said late Tuesday.

“Rafah needs to open as soon as possible,” Peeperkorn said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.