Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, says Israeli attacks on the health system in the Palestinian Gaza Strip have taken “the most sadistic forms”.

“Hospitals and medical personnel are sacred”, the UN human rights expert said in a post on X, “especially at a time of great destruction, suffering and despair as this senseless war against the people in Gaza”.

Israel has continued its attacks on hospitals and health workers across the Gaza Strip despite global outcry.

In recent days alone:

* An Israeli air strike on the Nasser Hospital maternity ward killed Dina Abu Mehsen, 13, who had survived an earlier Israeli attack that killed most of her family.

* Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said six of its staff were among hospital workers and patients who were stripped, bound and interrogated after Israeli forces took over al-Awda Hospital.

WHO: Disease and hunger will ‘lead to more deaths’ in Gaza

The UN’s health organization has outlined the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza in a lengthy post on X.

“Hunger is ravaging Gaza, and this is expected to increase illness across the Strip, most acutely among children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and older people,” it wrote.

It said that in recent missions to Gaza, its staff reported that every person they spoke to was hungry.

“We move around Gaza delivering medical supplies, and people rush to our trucks hoping it’s food,” WHO staff said, calling it “an indicator of the desperation”.

It said that 100,000 cases of diarrhoea and 150,000 cases of upper respiratory infection have been reported since October 7, and outlined how, when combined with malnutrition, these illnesses can become deadly.

“The people of Gaza, who have already suffered enough, now face death from starvation and diseases that could be easily treated with a functioning health system,” the WHO said, reiterating its calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.