UN worker says Gaza hospitals ‘widely overflowing with children and the injured’

The situation inside Gaza’s hospitals is ‘dire’, according to a UN worker n the ground (Picture: X/James Elder)

A UN worker has condemned the bleak conditions inside overcrowded hospitals in Gaza filled with young children and the wounded.

‘This is a war on children,’ said UNICEF’s James Elder from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which lies to the south of the Gaza Strip.

It’s Gaza’s biggest functioning hospital but is currently operating at more than double capacity and Israeli air strikes are landing within 50 metres of the building, according to Mr Elder.

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‘This hospital simply cannot take more children with the wounds of war,’ he said. 

‘With the burns, with the shrapnel littering their body with the broken bones. There are children everywhere.

‘To accept the sacrifice of the children in Gaza is humanity giving up.’

James Elder said ‘there are children everywhere’ at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza (Picture: @MiddleEastEye/X)

It comes as the war between Israel and Hamas resumed in full force when a week-long ceasefire ended early on Friday morning.

Israel wasted no time in resuming its brutal attack on the Gaza Strip. 

Within minutes of the truce expiring, bombs were raining down on Gaza once again as black smoke billowed from the besieged territory.

Hamas, meanwhile, fired rockets at several communal farms near Gaza. Both sides blame each other for the hostilities resuming.

Palestinian children are carried into the Nasser hospital after they were injured in Israeli airstrikes on Friday (Picture: Getty Images)

Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City and southern parts of the enclave, urging civilians to leave their homes to avoid the fighting.

People in Khan Younis were warned that the town is now a ‘dangerous battle zone’, while other leaflets told residents in several neighbourhoods in Gaza to move from the north to the south.

Just hours into Israel’s renewed offensive on Friday, the Health Ministry of Hamas-controlled Gaza said 109 people had been killed and dozens wounded.

Earlier in the conflict, hundreds of thousands of people fled northern Gaza in an extraordinary mass exodus that saw many take shelter in Khan Younis and other places in the south.

One of the first air strikes on Friday destroyed a large building in Khan Younis.

Israeli air strikes hit southern Gaza on Friday as fighting resumed just minutes after a week-long truce ended (Picture: Ismael Mohamad/UPI/Shutterstock)

Moments later, residents were seen frantically searching the rubble for survivors as medics approached. One wounded person was carried away on a stretcher.

Horrific scenes have returned again and a worsening humanitarian crisis is crippling Gaza, while children are suffering the most at the centre of it all.

The health, nutrition, water and sanitation situation is ‘dire’ and ‘threatens a disaster of unparalleled magnitude for the children of Gaza’, says Mr Elder.

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He said: ‘The humanitarian situation in Gaza is so perilous that anything other than sustained peace and at scale emergency aid will mean catastrophe for the children of Gaza.

‘Such is the enormity of need, such has been the blocks on aid for so long, that despite huge efforts this past week, the health and nutrition and sanitation situation worsens by the day.

‘A lasting ceasefire must therefore be implemented. The alternative is unthinkable for people already living in a nightmare. Inaction, at its core, is an approval of the killing of children.’

Young babies were among those hurt in air strikes on Khan Younis on Friday (Picture: Getty Images)

But bombs started falling ‘just seconds’ after the end of the ceasefire, said Mr Elder who said he could see a hit just 50 metres away as he approached. 

Once inside the hospital, he was met with a scene of horror. 

‘Hundreds of women and children sleep in waiting rooms and corridors,’ he said. ‘Children with the wounds of war are everywhere. Hospitals cannot take more wounded patients. 

‘The system is shattered. I visited a hospital in the north; normally it should do referrals. It is now the largest functioning hospital in the north. Blood and bloodied bandages cover the floor. 

‘Health staff are exhausted. The church inside the hospital is an emergency room – it too was hit. I saw a mother cry as her son bled to death. Death is everywhere.’

Mr Elder said that he could ‘see a gentle change’ in the faces of the children as the ceasefire brought some much-needed respite over the last week and a ‘glimpse of childhood returning’.

‘No longer,’ he said. ‘Fear has returned. So have the wounded. Bloodied bodies were rushed in as I was there.

‘It is reckless to think more attacks on the people of Gaza will lead to anything other than carnage. And yet there were three or four large blasts nearby whilst I was there.

‘Surely, any conversation around Gaza has to begin with empathy. It’s deeply unsettling to hear how some have been able to overlook the tragic deaths of these children; and now, today, are seemingly comfortable with the horrors – the attacks – starting again.’

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are crammed into the territory’s south with no exit, raising questions over how any Israeli offensive there could avoid heavy civilian casualties.

It was not clear to what extent Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will heed appeals from the United States, Israel’s most important ally.

Mr Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that Israel ‘is committed to achieving the goals of the war: releasing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to the residents of Israel’.

The Israeli PM said the war resumed because Hamas had violated the terms of the truce. 

‘It has not met its obligation to release all of the women hostages today and has launched rockets at Israeli citizens,’ he said.

During the week-long truce, Hamas and other militants in Gaza released more than 100 hostages, most of them Israelis, in return for 240 Palestinians freed from prisons in Israel.

Virtually all of those freed were women and children but the fact that few such hostages now remain in Gaza made it hard to reach a deal to extend the ceasefire.

British prime minister Rishi Sunak said the breakdown of the truce in Gaza is ‘deeply disappointing’ and called for all women and child hostages to be released.

Speaking at a press conference at the Cop28 summit in Dubai, he said: ‘The breakdown of the truce today is deeply disappointing, not least because a growing number of hostages were coming home.

‘I pay tribute to the role of Qatar in helping facilitate these efforts and I hope that the process can be resumed.

‘We want all hostages released and in this initial phase, all women and children should be freed.

‘I’ve said before that the number of civilian casualties and the scale of suffering has been far too high, so the return of hostilities is concerning to us all.’

Mr Sunak called for Israel to take ‘maximum care’ to avoid civilian casualties and said he was opposed to ‘mass displacement of people’, adding that the UK was exploring options for getting aid to the region by sea.

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