The destruction of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza will require more medical evacuations and ultimately cause more deaths if these are not carried out swiftly, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
Israeli forces, who left the hospital in Gaza City on Monday after a two-week operation, detained hundreds of suspected Palestinian militants and left a swathe destroyed buildings in their wake.
"The people who need medical evacuation will increase, and medical evacuation is already slow," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"People will die because they will not get the services either from Shifa or because of slow evacuation, because they cannot be evacuated."
Israel said it killed hundreds of Hamas fighters who had based themselves there. Hamas and medical staff deny fighters were present.