One World Health Organization (WHO) staff member remained in Israeli detention Tuesday evening after the Israeli military destroyed WHO’s main supply warehouse and then raided the WHO staff residence in Deir Al Balah during its new offensive into the central Gaza strip area – which until recently had remained a relative island of calm during the 21-month war. 

“The attacks happened by the Israeli military, who went to the premises later, and then put in danger the WHO staff and their families,” said WHO Spokesperson Tarik Jašarević at a UN press conference in Geneva on Tuesday morning.  

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that soldiers forced women and children to evacuate on foot toward Al Mawasi “amid active conflict” while male staff and family members were “handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint.”

Two WHO staff and two family members were initially detained, with one staff still remaining in detention. 

“WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff,” said Tedros.

While the lifelines in #Gaza are being cut, our ability to save lives slips further out of reach each day, as seen in recent attacks on our facilities.

Despite these attacks, @WHO will remain in Deir al Balah to deliver aid.

WHO urgently calls on Member States to help ensure… pic.twitter.com/I95J0F9gGF

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) July 22, 2025

Warehouse destroyed by drones, followed by attacks on residence

According to eyewitness reports released later by WHO, Israeli military drones first attacked the supply warehouse late Sunday evening, initially puncturing the roof, then targeting the generator, and later setting the building on fire, causing the roof to collapse.   

“Throughout the night, witnesses and the security company reported the presence of drones and dropping of different explosive devices, including incendiary ones. In the morning of the 21 July, smoke was reported coming out of the warehouse roof with no further information available due to the impossibility to access the area, as tanks were already positioned,” a WHO spokesperson later said, citing eyewitness reports from staff in Gaza.  

Shortly after noon on Monday, the WHO staff premises nearby was hit by a series of projectiles, followed by a drone explosion on the main residence floor, and a tank attack against a main wall of the house. 

Around 2:30 pm Israeli soldiers occupied the residence, where staff and families had been huddling in a bathroom, stripping and detaining male staff and sending women and children on foot to the Mawasi humanitarian area, in a Gaza coastal area, some kilometers away. 

“Male colleagues were held at gun point in front of a tank, stripped to their underwear and with their hands up. Four tanks were inside the premises… private cars full of personal items, prepared for evacuation, were run over by the tanks,” said a WHO spokesperson, citing further eyewitness reports. A WHO rescue convoy was finally allowed to enter the area, eyewitnesses said, saying it found:

“Thirteen males, some of them children, were held in front of a tank. Shooting was ongoing in the area.  At 15:40, WHO was allowed to take nine males, while four were kept for further security screening. Nine were allowed to leave with their clothes. Of the four detained, three were later released in just their underwear and ordered to run to Al Mawasi area, while one was taken away blindfolded, handcuffed, and only wearing his underwear.”

The attacks clearly targeted to WHO facilities, the global health agency added, noting that “the geographical coordinates of all WHO premises, including offices, warehouses, and staff housing, are shared with the relevant parties”.

The global health body added: “These facilities are the backbone of WHO’s operations in Gaza and must always be protected, regardless of evacuation or displacement orders. Any threat to these premises is a threat to the entire humanitarian health response in Gaza.”

Since 25 June, WHO had managed to bring in 24 trucks “carrying trauma supplies, medical items like syringes, bandages and surgical gowns, some essential medicine, assistive devices, antibiotics, diagnostic kits and others.” said Tarik Jašarević at a press briefing earlier Tuesday, adding: 

“But this is nearly not enough for the hospitals, and what hospitals really need is fuel, and fuel was not coming in. So what we we have supplies ready to move in, but we need that access. And, again, hospitals need fuel, patients and health workers need fuel as well.” 

Evacuation orders on Deir Al Balah pushes Gazans into shrinking space 

The new Israeli offensive, which began Sunday, was accompanied by a fresh evacuation order on six city blocks in central Deir Al Balah, a town with a population of about 75,000 people before the war began in October 2023.  The city had remained relatively calm throughout most of the conflict, with other humanitarian operations also clustered there along with WHO’s hub.  

“With 88% of Gaza now under evacuation orders or within Israeli-militarized zones, there is no safe place to go,” said WHO.

Meanwhile, there continue to be almost daily reports of further shooting deaths of Palestinians on their way to get food aid from the few distribution points that Israel has allowed to continue operating, mostly under the auspices of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).  

More than 1000 Gazans have been killed seeking food aid in recent weeks said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations Refugee Agency for Palestinians,  in an UNRWA statement, shared at the Geneva press briefing.

And “extreme hunger and starvation” continues to grip the enclave of 2 million people, said UNRWA’s Juliette Touma at the briefing, as a result of Israel’s decision to close off Gaza to most humanitarian aid deliveries, in March.  UNRWA has over 6000 trucks poised in Jordan and Egypt, but the organization has been barred from bringing in aid since March, she added. 

“Israel is blocking 6,000 UNRWA trucks from entering Gaza while children die of hunger.” https://t.co/MenBTQpChX

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) July 20, 2025

“The last update that we had issued in mid-May said, 57 children died of malnutrition only since the siege began,” she said. “But that’s likely an outdated figure that we need to update. For the past 48 to 72 hours, we’ve been receiving SOS messages from[UNRWA]  staff who are hungry themselves, who are exhausted themselves, who are supposed to be taking care of others and providing humanitarian assistance, except they are exhausted. “

“UNRWA continues to be on the ground in Gaza,” she said, noting that the sprawling organization operates tent cities, health clinics and some of the only remaining water and sanitation points in Gaza –  despite Israel’s closure on the agency’s Jerusalem operations. 

Twenty-eight nations denounce ‘inhumane killing of civilians’

Meanwhile on Monday, 28 nations, including the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and Australia, issued a tough statement denouncing the repeated Israeli military killings around the food aid sites, and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.   

The statement, which began saying, “the war in Gaza must end now” denounced what it described as “the inhumane killing of civilians” seeking food aid. 

“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity.

“We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid,” the nations said.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy later told the House of Commons a “litany of horrors” was taking place in Gaza, including strikes that have killed “desperate, starving children”.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected the joint statement saying that the claims were “disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas”. 

UN says bottleneck for Gaza pickup of goods delivered to crossing areas

 A 15 July X post by the COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination group, also showed pictures of what it claimed were “thousands of pallets of humanitarian aid already inside Gaza, waiting to be picked up and distributed from the crossings by UN agencies and international organizations.”

COGAT also denied claims that Israel had restricted the entry of baby formula into Gaza. Although UN aid groups have continued some food deliveries, particularly in northern Gaza, they have said that they won’t work with GHF, because it doesn’t adhere to humanitarian principles.

In response to the COGAT claims, Jens Laerke, Deputy Spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that after aid trucks cross from Israeli into Gaza, they offload into an IDF-controlled area and return to Israel. “The stuff then sits there until we have Israeli permission to pick them up and a safe route – again assigned by Israel – to bring it further to our warehouses for further distribution.

“For our drivers to access it, they need multiple approvals, a pause in bombing, and for the iron gates to open. The Israeli authorities decide what gets in or out, when, how much, and by whom. We’re also facing Israeli restrictions on the type of supplies we can bring in. It’s an obstacle course controlled by the occupying power.”

There are reports that Israel and Hamas are close to an agreement on a six-week ceasefire, which would be accompanied by the exchange of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and a surge in aid. Both sides accuse the other of delaying a final agreement.

Israeli families of hostages, fearful their family members may also be held in areas the army is now entering, have lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the new offensive, accusing him of once more delaying  a ceasefire accord in order to keep together his fragile coalition with ultra-right parties that want to continue the war. 

Said Touma, UNRWA is poised to provide immediate aid relief if an agreement is finally reached.

“We haven’t been allowed at UNRWA to bring in any humanitarian assistance for four and a half months now, she said. “Meanwhile, we have over 10,000 people who work for UNRWA who are on the ground will be ready to receive those supplies and distribute them just like we did together with other UN agencies and humanitarian organizations, during the [February] ceasefire.” 

–Updated 23.7.2025 with WHO testimony of attack and final count of countries signing the manifesto calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. 

Image Credits: UNRWA , @IhabHassane, UNRWA , COGAT .