Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory

Women and children are seated crammed into a room with blue curtains.

43,000 displaced people are registered in this massively overcrowded UNRWA shelter. UNRWA

Occupied Palestinian Territory

OCHA is deeply concerned by the dramatic worsening of the situation in Khan Younis.

According to UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) at least 13 people were killed and 56 others injured – 21 of them critically – when the UNRWA Khan Younis Training Centre was hit by direct fire yesterday, at a building housing 800 displaced people. This should have been a place of safety.

UNRWA says that there are 43,000 internally displaced people registered in this massively overcrowded UNRWA shelter.

Throughout the day and into the early evening, ambulances, UNRWA emergency teams and missions to assess the situation were denied access to the site. When they finally reached it last night, they were able to evacuate around 45 people to Rafah, as well as treat trauma patients and bring medical supplies.

UNRWA says yesterday's strike was the third direct hit on this compound. Buildings flying the UN flag have been hit at least twice by tank fire, without warning.

The UN shares the location of our shelters directly with the Israeli authorities and we had received assurances that people inside them would be safe.

In a statement today, the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, Thomas White, said heavy fighting near the remaining hospitals in Khan Younis, including Nasser and Al Amal, has effectively encircled these facilities, leaving terrified staff, patients and displaced people trapped inside. Al Khair hospital has shut down after patients, including women who had just undergone C-section surgeries, were evacuated in the middle of the night.

Mr. White said the situation in Khan Younis underscores a consistent failure to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks. This is unacceptable and abhorrent and must stop.

We continue to call on all parties to take every precaution to minimize harm and protect civilians and civilian objects, especially in densely populated areas, and to protect hospitals, clinics, medical personnel and UN premises in accordance with international law. 

The near collapse of the health system and the lack of trauma care in Khan Younis city are making the humanitarian situation ever more intolerable and intense.