Readout of WHO's Statement on the Attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital

The following is a statement issued by the World Health Organization after the Al Ahli Arab Hospital was allegedly attacked, causing at least 500 deaths.

(Photo: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images) A Palestinian woman injured in an Israeli air strike reacts as she is taken for treatment at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 17, 2023. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinian have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip, entered southern Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in Gaza on October 8.

WHO strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip. The hospital was operational, with patients, health and caregivers, and internally displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries.

The hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military. The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced.

WHO calls for the immediate active protection of civilians and health care. Evacuation orders must be reversed. International humanitarian law must be abided by, which means health care must be actively protected and never targeted.