Hospitals cannot be used as source of combat: UN

WASHINGTON

The UN closely follows the attacks targeting the hospitals in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman said on Thursday.

"We're paying a lot of attention," Stephane Dujarric told reporters, adding the World Health Organization has been "very much" focused on the hospitals as they are within its remit.

"We have said over and over again that hospitals need to be protected. They cannot be used in combat. They can't be targeted, they cannot be used as a source of combat and we will continue to focus on that," Dujarric added.

After the conflict, he said there will need to be accountability.

According to the WHO, Dujarric said, only nine out of 36 health facilities are partially functional in entire Gaza, all of them in the south.

"The hospitals in the north are still sheltering thousands of displaced people," he added.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, killing at least 19,667 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 52,586 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory's housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.