GENEVA: The World Health Organization chief warned on Thursday that Israel’s ground offensive in northern Gaza had left already overwhelmed hospitals on the “brink of collapse” and demanded an “end to these inhumane conditions.”
“The military incursion and evacuation orders in northern Gaza are driving new waves of displacement, forcing traumatized families into an ever-shrinking area unfit for human dignity,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, warning that “hospitals, already overwhelmed, are on the brink of collapse as escalating violence blocks access and prevents WHO from delivering lifesaving supplies.”
Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital said it had received the bodies of 20 people killed in Israeli strikes since midnight.
More than 60 people had been killed by Israeli fire on Wednesday, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
Also on Thursday, Spain said it will probe “human rights violations in Gaza” to assist the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for top Israeli officials over alleged war crimes.
The announcement marks another step by Spain, a virulent critic of the devastating Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory, to lead international action over the conflict.
Spain’s top prosecutor, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, has “issued a decree to create a working team tasked with investigating violations of international human rights law in Gaza,” his office said in a statement.
The investigative team’s mission will be to “gather evidence and make it available to the competent body, thereby fulfilling Spain’s obligations regarding international cooperation and human rights,” it said.
“Faced with the current situation in the Palestinian territories, all evidence, direct or indirect, that can be gathered in our country” on “crimes committed” in Gaza “must be included” for potential use in the ICC case, it added in the decree.
The statement mentioned a Spanish police report which reřcorded “acts that could constitute crimes against the international community” perpetrated by the Israeli army in Gaza.
The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Spain has also joined a case before another world court, 4the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
