The war on Gaza has devastated swathes of the Gaza strip, levelled entire neighbourhoods and destroyed much of the infrastructure, including hospitals, AFP reports.

Even before fighting resumed on Friday after a week-long pause, Gaza’s health system was on its knees with hospitals resembling a “horror movie”, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Now it is “catastrophic”, the UN agency has said.

Currently, only 18 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even minimally to partially functional, with the three main hospitals in the north barely operative, Richard Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Gaza on Friday.

The United Nations says not a single hospital in northern Gaza can carry out surgeries after several were attacked by Israel, while those in the south are overwhelmed by the number of casualties they receive daily.