The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Gaza’s hospitals are on the “brink of collapse” as the Israeli military’s ground invasion pushes deeper into the besieged enclave.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that the Israeli assault, currently centred on Gaza City, is “driving new waves of displacement, forcing traumatised families into an ever-shrinking area unfit for human dignity”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listIsraeli tanks and warplanes pounded Gaza City on Thursday, prompting long lines of scared Palestinian civilians to flee as the military intensified its assault.Internet and phone lines were cut off across the enclave, in a sign that ground operations were likely to escalate.The military continued to focus fire on parts of the city that suggest an imminent advance on central and western areas, where most of the population is sheltering.“The injured and people with disabilities cannot move to safety, which puts their lives in grave danger,” Tedros said. “We call for an immediate end to these inhumane conditions. We call for a ceasefire.”At least 14 people were killed by Israeli attacks on Thursday morning, including nine in Gaza City, hospital officials told Al Jazeera.By early afternoon, at least 29 Palestinians were reported to have been killed across the enclave since dawn, including 19 in the city.Reporting from Nuseirat in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said only two hospitals in the enclave’s largest city, al-Shifa and al-Ahli, remain partially functional. Advertisement “As the Israeli military advances its tanks and armoured vehicles, there is close to a total siege on Gaza City with acute shortages of medical supplies in the two still-operating health facilities,” he said.“While these health centres are still operating somehow, they are barely offering the basi …
