Patients evacuated as besieged Nasser Hospital faces power, water and food shortages

Gaza health officials say Israeli forces have detained 70 members of staff and volunteers, including the hospital director

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Medics moved 32 patients from the besieged Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, on Sunday and Monday, after the health ministry said the building had gone out of service because of a blackout and shortages of food and water.

The World Health Organisation said it carried out two missions where weak and frail patients were transferred amid “active conflict” near the convoy.

Damaged roads made the operation more difficult, hindering ambulance movement and “placing the health of patients at further risk”.

The transferred patients include three suffering from paralysis – two of them with tracheostomies – and several others with external fixators – pins attached to broken bones – for “severe orthopaedic injuries”.

Two of those paralysed required manual ventilation due to the absence of portable ventilators.

Conditions inside the hospital were dire, the WHO said. The centre had no running water or electricity.

“Medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease,” the WHO said.

The hospital’s main building had been turned into a military barracks by Israeli troops who laid siege on the complex on February 17.

They detained 70 staff and volunteers including the hospital’s director Dr Nahed Abu Taeema, the ministry said. Israel has denied this claim.

“There are still more than 180 patients and 15 doctors and nurses inside Nasser,” the WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media platform X.

“The hospital is still experiencing an acute shortage of food, basic medical supplies, and oxygen,” he said, urging Israel to allow safe and sustained access to Nasser Hospital to continue life-saving efforts. “There is no tap water and no electricity, except a backup generator maintaining some life-saving machines.”

The WHO had previously said it was denied entry to the hospital.

A video published by Dr Tedros showed WHO teams inside the hospital and transferring patients on to stretchers.

Eight of the patients taken outside could not walk, WHO trauma surgeon Dr Athanasios Gargavanis said.

Two of them need the assistance of ventilators.

The video showed departments of the hospital empty and abandoned, confirming that the facility is not operational.

The roads around the hospital were muddied and buildings around it were destroyed.