GMO denies reports on evacuation of foreign medical delegations from Gaza

GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Government Media Office (GMO) in the Gaza Strip denied on Monday reports circulating that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) had instructed foreign medical delegations to leave the Gaza Strip.

“Some activists and amateurs are circulating rumors and allegations that the occupation has instructed all foreign medical delegations to leave the Gaza Strip immediately,” the GMO said in a statement.

It said, “after direct communication with international medical and non-medical institutions, we categorically confirm that this information is not true and falls within rumors.”

The GMO called on everyone, especially activists and media professionals, “to be accurate and responsible in reporting news and information, and to verify their sources before circulating and publishing them, to avoid spreading rumors that may serve the agendas of the occupation and confuse the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Monday that the raid that targeted the Nasser Medical Complex in the Gaza Strip “resulted in deaths and injuries and severe damage to the surgical department.”

“The Nasser complex is the largest hospital in the southern Gaza Strip and the strike destroyed 35 patient beds,” Ghebreyesus explained.

He reiterated that “healthcare systems are not targets and must be protected and cannot be militarized.”

On Sunday evening, Israeli warplanes targeted the emergency building at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation resumed its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip at dawn Tuesday, March 18, in violation of the fragile ceasefire agreement brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States in January.

The bodies of hundreds of children and women who were targeted by Israeli airstrikes as they were sleeping in their homes or displacement tents filled the yards of hospitals that lack even the most basic means of providing treatment.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, with US and European support, leaving more than 162,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.