Published1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, AFPBy David GrittenBBC NewsUntreated diseases could eventually kill more people in Gaza than bombings if the health system is not restored, the World Health Organization says.Diarrhoea and respiratory infections are widespread among children in overcrowded UN facilities where almost 1.1 million people are sheltering.Patients with chronic illnesses like cancer are also receiving no treatment.The warning comes as a truce between Israel and Hamas entered a fifth day, after a 48-hour extension was agreed.The deal mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States should see an additional 20 Israeli women and children held hostage in Gaza being released in exchange for 60 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli prisons.On Monday, 11 hostages and 33 prisoners were freed on the fourth and final day of the initial agreement, bringing the totals to 50 hostages and 150 prisoners released. Nineteen foreign nationals, one of whom has Israeli citizenship, have also been handed over by Hamas under separate agreements.Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza and imposed a siege in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and about 240 others taken hostage. Gaza’s Hamas-run government says more than 14,800 people have been killed in the territory since the war began.More on Israel-Gaza warFollow live: Latest updatesExplained: Who are the hostages released from Gaza?Prisoner release: Israel frees 33 Palestinians on fourth day of truceWatch: Israeli child hostages reunited with family dogIsrael-Gaza briefing: When truce ends, the decisive next phase of war beginsThe UN estimates that more than 1.8 million people in Gaza have fled their homes over the past seven weeks. About 60% of them are sheltering in 156 facilities belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.WHO spokeswoman Dr Margaret Harris told a news conference in Geneva that an assessment of those shelters had found outbreaks of infectious diseases, with cases of diarrhoea among children aged five and older more than 100 times normal levels by early November. No treatment is available for them, she said, without which infants in particular can deteriorate and die very quickly.According to the UN, only five hospitals are partially operational in the north of Gaza, the area that has been the focus of the Israeli ground offensive. Eight of the 11 hospitals are functional in the south, where the Israeli military has ordered civilians to flee. Only one of those hospitals has the capacity to treat critical trauma cases or perform complex surgery.”Eventually, we will see more people dying from disease than we are even seeing from the bombardment if we are not able to put back [together] this health system,” Dr Harris warned.Addressing journalists via video link from Gaza, Unicef spokesman James Elder reported seeing hospitals full of children with horrendous war wounds.He described seeing one child missing part of his leg lying untreated on a hospital floor for several hours because of a lack of medical staff. Other injured children were lying in car parks and gardens outside, he said. This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Displaced children and their families are also suffering because of a lack of proper shelter and clothing to protect them from the rainy and cold weather currently in Gaza. Over the first four days of the truce, 800 aid lorries entered Gaza, with some reaching the north, according to US officials. That is an increase in comparison to the preceding few days, but it is still just a fraction of the usual number.The UN agencies say that in such conditions, a resumption in fighting should be unthinkable, they are calling again for a permanent ceasefire.Israel’s prime minister has promised that its military will “go to realising our goals with full force” when the pause ends. However, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it would use the extension to seek a “sustainable truce that would lead to further negotiations and eventually an end… to this war”.”We are working with what we have. And what we have right now is the provision to the agreement that allows us to extend days as long as Hamas is able to guarantee the release of at least 10 hostages,” spokesman Majed al-Ansari told reporters in Doha.He added that mediators hoped to receive information from Hamas about the more than 150 Israelis and foreign nationals still being held hostage, who include children as young as 10 months old as well as a number of soldiers.A senior Hamas source in Qatar told the BBC that not all of the civilian hostages were in its hands. Some were with smaller armed groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which like Hamas is classed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and other Western powers.According to the source, Hamas needs more time to collect information and contact people. Communication is very difficult because of the damage to the telecoms network and the shortage of fuel to power it.Mr Ansari also said only “minimal breaches” of the truce had been reported. But two hours after he spoke the Israeli military said three explosive devices had been detonated near its troops in two different locations in northern Gaza in violation of the agreement. “In one of the locations, terrorists also opened fire at the troops, who responded with fire. A number of soldiers were lightly injured during the incidents,” it added.Hamas’s military wing said there had been “friction” in the north and that its fighters had dealt with an “clear breach” of the truce deal by Israeli troops. Gunfire and explosions were earlier reported in north-western Gaza City.A local journalist told the BBC that dozens of displaced people were trying to return to their houses in the Sheikh Radwan area when they approached Israeli army positions, and that an Israeli tank and troops fired warning shots. One person was wounded and a building was hit by a shell, they said.More on this storyMore Palestinian teens freed in hostage dealPublished1 day agoFour-year-old girl among released Israeli hostagesPublished1 day agoFor many hostage families, the painful wait drags onPublished2 days agoWatch: Gazans take stock of damaged neighbourhoodsPublished2 days ago

Published13 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingThis video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.By David GrittenBBC NewsHundreds of people have been killed by an explosion at a crowded hospital in Gaza City, health officials say.One doctor condemned what he called “a massacre” at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, while another spoke of a scene of total devastation. Palestinian officials say the blast was caused by an Israeli air strike. But the Israeli military say it was the result of a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad – an accusation the militant group rejected.Israeli warplanes and artillery have been bombarding Gaza in response to an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October by the main Palestinian militant group, Hamas, which killed 1,400 people.More than 3,000 people have been reported killed by strikes on Gaza.The hospital blast is threatening efforts to resolve the humanitarian crisis there, with Jordan cancelling a planned summit on Wednesday between US President Joe Biden, King Abdullah and the Palestinian and Egyptian leaders.Mr Biden is still travelling to Tel Aviv to show his country’s “solidarity with Israel” and “ironclad commitment to its security”.More on Israel-Gaza warFollow live: Latest updatesExplained: What’s going on in Gaza and Israel, and why now?History behind the story: The Israel-Palestinian conflictHamas attack: Family seeks answers after live-stream horrorFrom Gaza: BBC reporter flees Israel bomb warningPictures that emerged from Al-Ahli Arab hospital on Tuesday night show scenes of chaos, with bloodied and maimed casualties being rushed out on stretchers in the darkness. Bodies and wrecked vehicles can be seen lying in the rubble-strewn street outside. One video appears to show a projectile hitting the area followed by a blast. “We were operating in the hospital, there was a strong explosion, and the ceiling fell on the operating room. This is a massacre,” said Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a Médecins Sans Frontières plastic surgeon who had been helping to treat people wounded in the war.Another doctor told the BBC that 80% of the hospital had been taken out of service and estimated that 1,000 people had been killed or injured.The Ahli al-Arab hospital is fully funded by the Anglican Church, which says the facility is independent of any political factions in Gaza. Canon Richard Sewell, the dean of St George’s College in Jerusalem and one of the Church’s top figures in the holy city, said it was difficult to get reliable information about what happened but that he could confirm the hospital had been hit and that a “horrific number of people” had died.He told the BBC that about 6,000 displaced people had been sheltering in the hospital courtyard at the end of last week. The hospital was first hit by an Israeli air strike that caused damage and injured four people on Saturday, he said. After that, 5,000 people left the courtyard – leaving around 1,000 remaining there, many of them invalids or elderly who needed transportation.Revd Sewell said about 600 patients and staff treating them had been inside the hospital at the time of Monday’s explosion, but that he believed most of those killed had been outside.”There is no justification for this type of attack, accidental or deliberate,” he added. “It is an absolute horror show which is unfolding.”Zaher Kuhail, a British-Palestinian civil engineering consultant and university professor who was nearby at the time, told the BBC that what he had witnessed was “beyond imagination”.”I [saw] two rockets coming from an F-16 or an F-35 [fighter jet], shelling these people and killing them ruthlessly, without any mercy,” he said. He added that many people had been killed by fires sparked by the explosion and that first responders had lacked the equipment they needed to rescue survivors.The health ministry in Gaza said 500 people had been killed and hundreds more were feared trapped under the rubble.Hamas blamed an Israeli strike for what it called a “horrific massacre”.A spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the occupied West Bank, accused Israel of a “heinous crime”. Anger also spilled onto the streets in the West Bank. Hundreds of protesters clashed with PA security forces who responded by firing tear gas. This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) first response was to stress that it did not target hospitals, and it urged caution about “unverified claims”.Later, chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video statement: “Following an additional review and cross-examination of the operational and intelligence systems, it is clear that the IDF did not strike the hospital in Gaza.””The hospital was hit as a result of a failed rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation,” he said.He said 450 of the thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately towards Israel since the beginning of the war had fallen within Gaza, endangering civilians.Palestinian Islamic Jihad denied that any of its rockets had been involved, saying it had not carried out any activity around Gaza City at the time.The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was shocked and horrified by the reports.”Hospitals should be sanctuaries to preserve human life, not scenes of death and destruction. No patient should be killed in a hospital bed. No doctors should lose their lives while trying to save others,” a statement said.”Hospitals must be protected under international humanitarian law.” The World Health Organization also called for the immediate protection of civilians and healthcare and urged the Israeli military to reverse the evacuation orders it has issued to 20 hospitals in northern of Gaza ahead of what is expected to be a major ground offensive.”The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced.”Are you in the region? If it is safe to do so, share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. 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Published1 day agoSharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, AFPThe UN has expressed concern about the first confirmed cholera outbreak in Syria in years, saying it poses a “serious threat” to the entire region.More than 900 suspected cases and eight deaths have been reported in the war-torn country in the past three weeks.The outbreak has been concentrated in Aleppo and Deir al-Zour provinces.It is believed to be linked to people drinking contaminated water from the River Euphrates, which flows through the provinces, and using it on crops.The outbreak is also seen as an indicator of the severe shortages of water throughout Syria caused by climate change and conflict.Rising temperatures, below-average rainfall and reduced flow from upstream neighbour Turkey have resulted in critically low levels in the Euphrates. That, combined with widespread damage to supply and sewerage infrastructure, has left many of the 5 million Syrians who depend on the river for drinking water and crop irrigation reliant on unsafe sources. It has also triggered an increase in dangerous water-borne diseases like cholera.The Syrian health ministry said on Monday that 20 cases of cholera, including two deaths, had been confirmed by laboratories in the northern province of Aleppo, the state-run Sana news agency reported. It added that another four cases had been confirmed in the coastal province of Latakia as well as two in the capital Damascus among patients from Aleppo.However, the UN warned that surveillance data showed a total of 936 severe acute diarrhoea cases, including at least eight related deaths, had been recorded across Syria since 25 August.More than 670 of those suspected cases and six of the deaths were in Aleppo, while 201 cases and two deaths were in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour. “The outbreak presents a serious threat to people in Syria and the region,” warned the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Syria, Imran Riza. “Swift and urgent action is needed to prevent further illness and death,” he added, appealing to donor countries for urgent additional funding.The UN said rapid diagnostic tests, intravenous fluids and rehydration salts had been delivered to health facilities in affected communities and other high-risk areas, such as camps for displaced people. Clean water is also being delivered by lorries and chlorination is being scaled up.Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera. In severe cases, the disease can kill within hours if left untreated.More on this storyWhy has the Syrian war lasted 11 years?15 MarchStopping deadly cholera with weather forecasts27 August 2018First global pledge to end cholera3 October 2017