Israel bans U.N. agency helping Palestinians as northern Gaza healthcare system collapses

Geoff Bennett:

In Northern Gaza, it was another day of mass death, with Israeli airstrikes killing at least 88 people, including many children, as the Israel Defense Forces continue ground operations there.

Hospitals were flooded with injured and doctors have few, if any, supplies to treat the wounded. Hundreds of thousands remain trapped and no substantial food or aid has been allowed into the area for weeks. That's as Israel's Parliament passed two measures that effectively outlaw the U.N. agency charged with aiding Palestinians.

Here's Nick Schifrin.

And a caution:

Images in this story are disturbing.

Nick Schifrin:

Underneath buildings that have become carcasses, lives end in canvas shrouds or wrapped in carpets. Today in Beit Lahia, the bodies lay side by side across the street from what used to be a single apartment block destroyed by an Israeli airstrike.

Residents said there was no warning for the men buried under the rubble, for the girl burned trying to escape. There are no emergency workers left, so survivors are forced to carry the dead, and boys are forced to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Many of the injured arrived in nearby Al-Awda Hospital. Its director, Mohammed Salha, spoke to us by phone.

Dr. Mohammed Salha, Director, Al-Awda Hospital:

We are receiving 40 injured here. We're doing three lifesaving operation. We have shortage of medication, medical supplies, fuel, and shortage of food. Only we are eating one meal per day. All our department is full of patient, all the beds. We are putting beds in the corridors.

Nick Schifrin:

For weeks, Al-Awda has received an overwhelming number of dead and hosted an overwhelming number of funerals. And now shortages that began three months ago have become acute after the hospital became a target.

Dr. Mohammed Salha:

So they destroyed two floors; 48 of beds are destroyed from our capacity. They destroyed our store of medical supplies. Nobody can help, because there's no ambulances. The situation became worse and worse and worse. And we can't deal with these huge number of injuries.

Nick Schifrin:

Al-Awda is in the middle of a four-week-old Israeli operation in Northern Gaza focused on Jabalia. The Israeli military says Hamas has regrouped here, storing weapons and explosives in local schools and in another local hospital.

Kamal Adwan, North Gaza still has terrorist infrastructure and Hamas leaders that must be targeted, says Israel's top general, Herzi Halevi.

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Chief of Staff, Israeli Defense Forces (through interpreter): Jabalia is falling. This is another psychological collapse. And if we take out the Northern Gaza brigade commander, it's another collapse. This pressure brings us closer to more achievements.

Nick Schifrin:

To do that, Israel has tried to evacuate 400,000 residents who have nowhere to stay or go.

Dr. Mohammed Salha:

The situation has became worse and worse and worse. No place is safe in the north. So we are really live in a disaster in the north. You can't imagine how was the situation. People is in the streets. There's no shelters, no markets, nothing. The people is like to die and not to live this life.

Nick Schifrin:

Nearly all of Gaza's health sector is run by UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, that in more peaceful times served nearly six million Palestinians in Gaza and across the region with schools and especially today emergency, and humanitarian assistance.

For years, Israel has criticized the agency's reference to refugees. But since October the 7th, Israel says multiple UNRWA schools turned shelters became Hamas command-and-control centers. Underneath UNRWA Gaza's headquarters, Israel says it found a Hamas tunnel. And earlier this year, Israel released a dossier that said four UNRWA staffers were involved in kidnapping Israelis, six UNRWA staffers in total infiltrated into Israel, and UNRWA acts under the authorization and supervision of Hamas.

And so last night, Israel's Parliament banned UNRWA from Israel. The bills passed overwhelmingly, with the support of centrist politicians like Yesh Atid member Ron Katz.

Ron Katz, Israeli Knesset Member (through interpreter):

The UNRWA organization that has been proven beyond any doubt to be part of Hamas took an active part during October 7 in the kidnapping, the murder, in all the actions that we know that the Hamas organization did in the state of Israel.

Nick Schifrin:

This summer, the U.N. fired nine UNRWA employees for participating in October the 7th, but absolved others, and promised to improve vetting of its 13,000 Gaza employees.

Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General:

We have an inspection that is working in order to detect any areas of infiltration that might exist.

Nick Schifrin:

Israel promises to replace UNRWA either with other U.N. agencies or private contractors. But the U.S. and U.N. say UNRWA is the only organization that can keep Gazans alive.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: There is no alternative to UNRWA when it comes to delivering food and other lifesaving aid in Gaza.

Nick Schifrin:

The legislation doesn't go into effect for three months. In the meantime, in North Gaza, the bodies continue to arrive on the back of carts.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.