WHO anger at attack on last working major hospital

The World Health Organization says it is "appalled" by an Israeli raid that it said had shut down and partly destroyed the last major hospital still functioning in northern Gaza.

- By Malak A Tantesh GAZA and Julian Borger

Israel's "systematic dismantling of the health system" combined with a siege of the population in the north of the coastal strip "puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk", the WHO said.

It cited initial reports that some departments of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia "were burnt and severely damaged during the raid, including the laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operations theatre, and the medical store".

Sources in Beit Lahia said that most of the medics and nurses detained in last Friday's raid had been released but the hospital's director, Hussam Abu Safiya, was still unaccounted for.