The United Nations has decried the intentional destruction of complex and hard-to-obtain medical equipment in Gaza’s beleaguered hospitals and maternity wards, further deepening risks to women already giving birth in “inhumane, unimaginable conditions”, AFP reports.

Recent UN-led missions to 10 Gaza hospitals found many “in ruins” and just a couple capable of providing any level of maternal health services, says Dominic Allen, the UN Population Fund representative for the State of Palestine.

He said what teams found at the Nasser hospital complex, long besieged by Israeli forces, “breaks my heart”.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem, he described seeing “medical equipment purposefully broken, ultrasounds — which you will know, is a very important tool for helping ensure safe births — with cables that have been cut”.

“Screens of complex medical equipment, like ultrasounds and others with the screens smashed,” he added.