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The World Health Organization is “appalled by the effective destruction” of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media, adding that it was a “severe blow” to a health system “already on its knees.” The besieged enclave is now fertile ground for disease, The Washington Post reported, with the WHO particularly concerned about the spread of bloody diarrhea, jaundice and respiratory infections. (12/18)

Gaza's Al Shifa hospital is providing only basic trauma stabilization, has no blood for transfusions and hardly any staff to care for a constant flow of patients, the World Health Organization said on Sunday. After a U.N. visit to deliver medicines and surgical supplies, the team described the emergency department in the enclave's main health facility as resembling a "bloodbath". The WHO said there were hundreds of wounded patients, with new ones arriving by the minute and trauma injuries being stitched on the floor, with almost no pain management available. (Al-Mughrabi, 12/17)

United Nations officials called for an investigation into an Israeli military raid on a Gaza hospital during which patients died and the armed forces said they detained scores of Hamas militants and recovered a trove of weapons and other military equipment, some of which officials said was hidden inside an infant incubator and a resuscitation station for newborns. Israeli forces withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday after entering the facility on Tuesday. The U.N. Human Rights Office said it was calling for an investigation of what transpired during the raid, citing allegations from medical staff that patients had died because of the conditions in the facility. (AbdulKarim, Shah and Stancati, 12/17)

A global rights group accused Israel on Monday of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas militants. ... U.S.-based Human Right Watch (HRW) said Israeli forces were deliberately blocking delivery of water, food and fuel, razing agricultural areas and depriving Gaza's 2.3 million people of items needed for survival. (Masoud, Chacar and Al-Mughrabi, 12/18)