Digital Desk: The largest hospital in Gaza was burned to ashes by Israel's most recent siege, leaving behind an "empty shell" that was home to several bodies, the World Health Organization said on Saturday. 

After a two-week military operation, during which it claimed to have engaged in combat with Palestinian agents inside what was once the most significant medical facility in the Palestinian territories, Israeli forces evacuated Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital on Monday. 

After numerous unsuccessful attempts since March 25, a WHO-led expedition was able to enter the hospital on Friday, according to the UN health organization, which also described the extensive damage.

"WHO and partners managed to reach Al-Shifa -- once the backbone of the health system in Gaza, which is now an empty shell with human graves after the latest siege," agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He stated that "at least five dead bodies during the mission" had been witnessed by the squad. 

According to the WHO chief, they had also discovered that "the majority of the buildings in the hospital complex are extensively destroyed and the majority of assets damaged or reduced to ashes." 

"Even restoring minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible," he stated. He added that "an in-depth assessment by a team of engineers is needed to determine if the remaining buildings are safe for future use" . 

 

Tedros lamented the fact that following Israel's first devastating raid on the hospital last year, efforts by the World Health Organization and other relief organizations to restore basic services at Al-Shifa "are now lost, and people are once again deprived of access to lifesaving health care services."

The WHO reports that only 10 of Gaza's 36 primary hospitals are still partially operational. 

1,170 Palestinians, primarily civilians, were killed in an unprecedented cross-border raid by Hamas militants on October 7, marking the start of the Gaza conflict, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

 

Approximately 130 of the 250 hostages that Palestinian militants captured are still in Gaza. More than thirty people are dead, according to the army. 

According to the health ministry in the territory controlled by Hamas, Israel has killed at least 33,137 individuals, predominantly women and children, since it began bombing the area to destroy Hamas. 

Tedros stated that "famine looms, disease outbreaks spread, and trauma injuries increase" in Gaza, necessitating immediate attention.

He called for the "protection of remaining health facilities in Gaza (and) protection of health and humanitarian workers".