Gaza hospitals running out of ‘basically everything’
Dr Victoria Rose, a consultant plastic surgeon, explains how the situation in Gaza’s hospitals has worsened over the last year, especially since aid was blocked by Israel in early March.
Dr Victoria Rose, a consultant plastic surgeon, explains how the situation in Gaza's hospitals has worsened over the last year, especially since aid was blocked by Israel in early March. pic.twitter.com/eFwGqREBTT
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 19, 2025
WHO says 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza damaged, destroyed
According to the World Health Organization:
- At least 94 percent of all hospitals in Gaza are damaged or destroyed.
- Only 19 of 36 hospitals remain functional, “although only partially”.
- Four major hospitals have closed in the last week “due to attacks, evacuation orders, and increasing hostilities”.
- Northern Gaza “has been stripped of nearly all healthcare”.
- The few remaining hospitals in the south are “overwhelmed [and] at imminent risk of shutting down”.
“Hospitals must never be militarized and are #NotATarget,” the UN organisation said in a post on X, calling for an immediate ceasefire.
At least 50 killed or missing after Israeli strike on residential building
More than 50 Palestinians were killed or remain missing after an Israeli air raid on a residential building in the Jabalia al-Balad area of northern Gaza, the Civil Defence said on Friday.
Civil Defence crews described the scene as a “horrific massacre”, reporting that they recovered the bodies of four victims and rescued six others from the rubble. However, more than 50 people are still believed to be trapped under the debris of the four-storey building.
Rescue operations have been completely halted due to a lack of heavy machinery.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip
UN rights office says Israeli attacks killed hundreds in houses and tents
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says 629 Palestinians have been killed in the last week in Gaza.
At least 358 of those were killed in attacks on houses and tents for displaced people, with children and women comprising at least 148 of the victims, it added.
“The high number of strikes on shelters, in the context of the existing destruction of infrastructure in Gaza, raises grave concerns that not all strikes were targeting military objectives,” OHCHR said.
Nine Palestinian journalists were also killed last week, making it one of the deadliest for the profession since the conflict began in October 2023, the agency added.
Although journalists have a deep sense of duty to their work, “they, too, are displaced, tired and hungry like the rest of the population of Gaza.”
‘Israeli military killing civilians for fun’
The Israeli army has continued its attacks on northern Gaza. In the latest attack, the victims were the Dardouna family in Jabalia. Israeli warplanes levelled their home, which housed more than 50 people.
Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif talked to people and a paramedic at the scene. “This residential building was made up of five levels. Last night, it was flattened to the ground by the Israeli fighter jets,” the paramedic said. “The air strikes caused all 50 people inside to be killed or buried alive. We managed to recover only a few.”
A relative of victims said his son’s firstborn was killed in the attack. “He was named after his uncle, Mohammed, who was also killed with his other child on October 23,” the Gaza resident added.
“We were raising his surviving son, but now he has joined his father and brother in heaven. Before them, his mother, sister, uncles, aunts and grandmother were all killed. The Israeli military is killing civilians for fun.”
Seven children among eight people killed in southern Gaza
Eight people, including seven children, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a house in Qizan an-Najjar, south of Khan Younis, Gaza’s civil defence is reporting. Several others were wounded.
