Gaza/Tel Aviv, 27 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Tens of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip are seeking shelter from the war in hospitals, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is crowded with 50,000 people, and the Al-Amal Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip with 14,000, the health organization said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday, citing a team on the ground.

The figures could not initially be independently verified.

The delegation was able to bring relief supplies to the hospitals together with representatives of the UN Children's Fund UNICEF and another organisation, according to the statement.

On the way to the hospitals, the WHO team observed tens of thousands of people fleeing the fierce Israeli attacks on foot, on mules or in cars.

In the hospitals, WHO staff had to climb over patients and people seeking protection who were camped everywhere.

WHO said 13 hospitals in the entire Gaza Strip were currently functioning partially, two at a minimal level and 21 not at all.

WHO officials are extremely concerned that new refugee movements will further strain the health facilities in the southern Gaza Strip.

"This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases, and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid," the statement quoted a WHO staff member on the ground as saying.

Photo: MIA archive