There are “currently almost two patients for every bed available” in Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Palestinian enclave, the World Health Organisation has said.

In a joint statement, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN relief agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said: “There are currently almost two patients for every bed available.”

They highlighted, “The number of wounded increases by the hour while patients are undergoing immense and unnecessary pain as medicines and anaesthetics are running out.”

Renewing their “urgent call for the delivery of fuel to humanitarian agencies in the Gaza Strip”, the officials emphasised that the northern areas of Gaza “cannot and should not be isolated nor deprived of the delivery of humanitarian assistance”.