An Israeli airstrike on Gaza's Nasser Hospital on Wednesday night killed six people, injured 27 others and caused extensive damage.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ad interim, on Thursday said he was deeply alarmed by the attack."
The strike hit the hospital's surgical department. A medical worker, patients and their companions were among the dead, according toon the World Health Organization ( WHO ).
"The ongoing violence and recent increase in military operations exacerbate the immense human suffering in Gaza and jeopardize the increasingly fragile ceasefire," Mr. Alakbarov said.
Under international humanitarian law, all parties are obliged to protect and respect medical personnel and facilities, including hospitals, which must not be targeted or used for military purposes, he stressed.
Mr. Alakbarov reiterated his call for rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access.
'Lifelines' under fire
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Gaza's health facilities are lifelines for its people that must be protected and never militarized or attacked.
Yet since October 2023, WHO has documented more than 1,000 assaults on healthcare in the Strip.
"The best medicine is peace," he said, stressing that health needs in the enclave "remain immense" as winter sets in.
On Thursday, a separate strike hit the vicinity of UN facilities in Deir al-Balah where staff are sheltering. All staff were accounted for.
Winter closing in
The strike comes as families struggle with the aftermath of heavy storms that battered Gaza last weekend, causing widespread flooding and a deadly sand dune collapse.
An estimated 65 per cent of Gaza's population, some 1.4 million people, live in tents or makeshift shelters, according to the UN aid coordination office ( OCHA ).
Reports indicate that a nine-month-old baby has died of the cold following days of heavy rain and flooding.
As of Wednesday, humanitarian partners had provided tents, tarpaulins, blankets and other essential supplies to about 1,800 families, roughly a third of some 5,200 families whose immediate needs had been assessed.
They have also pumped out standing water, dug drainage channels and cleaned affected areas.
But the rainy season has only just begun and is expected to last several months. Across Gaza, families are exposed to standing water contaminated with sewage, while available pumps, sandbags and other equipment fall short of needs.
Essential laboratory supplies and medical equipment also continue to be denied entry, hampering the detection of disease outbreaks - a risk that grows significantly in winter.
Call to action
A group of 53 countries and organizations on Thursday urged Israel's incoming government to let aid into Gaza at scale, as winter sets in.
Speaking outside the Security Council in New York on behalf of the Gaza Call to Action, UK Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh said the full aid flows promised under the peace plan endorsed by resolution 2803 had "not yet been realised".
