UN team delivers aid to besieged Al-Shifa Hospital

A UN team visited Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and brought aid, the first time the world body has been able to deliver aid into besieged northern Gaza in over a week, said UN humanitarians.

A team from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Health Organisation and the UN Children's Fund visited Al-Shifa and brought with them medicines, vaccines and fuel to help ensure that the medical facility remains functioning, said OCHA.

The team also met with people who were among those injured on Thursday, 29 February, while seeking life-saving aid west of Gaza City, Xinhua news agency reported.

The hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, has reportedly admitted more than 700 people injured in that incident, about 200 of whom were still hospitalised on Friday, OCHA added.

By the time of the team's visit on Friday morning, the hospital had also received the bodies of more than 70 people who had been killed in the incident. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the overall death toll from Thursday's incident has reached 112, said OCHA.