The World Health Organization has decried Israeli attacks on its staff residence and its main warehouse in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah.
"WHO's staff residence in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, was attacked three times today as well as its main warehouse," the UN health agency's chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
"Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward Al-Mawasi (in southern Gaza) amid active conflict," he said, adding that "male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint".
Dr Tedros said that 32 WHO staff and family members had been evacuated to the agency's office once access became possible.
At the same time, two WHO staff and two family members were detained, he said, and while three were later released, "one staff remains in detention".
"WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff," he insisted.
His comments came as Deir el-Balah faced intense shelling after Israel's military yesterday ordered residents to leave, warning of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated.
"The latest evacuation order in Deir el-Balah has affected several WHO premises, compromising our ability to operate in Gaza and pushing the health system further towards collapse," Dr Tedros warned.
He highlighted that WHO's main warehouse located in Deir al Balah was "within the evacuation zone, and was damaged yesterday (Sunday) when an attack caused explosions and a fire inside".
This was deepening an already dire crisis, Dr Tedros warned.
"With the main warehouse nonfunctional and the majority of medical supplies in Gaza depleted, WHO is severely constrained in adequately supporting hospitals, emergency medical teams and health partners, already critically short on medicines, fuel, and equipment," he said.
The WHO chief said his agency was urgently calling on its member states "to help ensure a sustained and regular flow of medical supplies into Gaza".
"As the lead agency for health, compromising WHO's operations is crippling the entire health response in Gaza," he said.
"A ceasefire is not just necessary, it is overdue."
'Last lifelines' are collapsing in Gaza, says UN chief
Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the "accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions" in Gaza.
"The last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
The United Nations chief "deplores the growing reports of children and adults suffering from malnutrition."
More than two dozen Western countries have also called for an immediate end to the conflict, saying that suffering had "reached new depths".
"The Secretary-General notes that the intensification of hostilities in recent days comes as the humanitarian system is being impeded, undermined and endangered," Mr Dujarric said.
"A new evacuation order in parts of Deir el-Balah - home to tens of thousands - pushes people into more desperate conditions and further displacement and restricts the United Nations' ability to deliver life-saving aid."
Israeli tanks in Gaza fuel concerns of hostages' families
It comes as Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held.
The region is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of the militant group Hamas.
The Israeli military yesterday ordered an evacuation of the area, where between 50,000 and 80,000 people were taking refuge, according to initial estimates from the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA, with whole families seen carrying what few belongings they had on donkey carts heading south.
Israeli sources said the reason the army has so far stayed out is that it suspects Hamas might be holding hostages there.
At least 20 of the remaining 50 captives in Gaza are believed to be still alive.
Families of the hostages expressed concern for their relatives and demanded an explanation from the army of how it would protect them.
The raid and bombardment pushed dozens of families who had remained to flee and head west towards the coastal area of Deir Al-Balah and nearby Khan Younis, where an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a man, his wife, and their two children, medics said.
The military escalation comes as Gaza health officials warned of potential "mass deaths" in the coming days due to mounting hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, according to the territory's health ministry.
They said that hospitals were running out of fuel, food aid, and medicine, risking a halt to vital operations.
Health ministry spokesperson Khalil Al-Deqran said medical staff have been depending on one meal a day, and that hundreds of people flock to hospitals every day, suffering from fatigue and exhaustion because of hunger.
At least 67 people were killed by Israeli fire yesterday as they waited for UN aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Israel's military said its troops had fired warning shots towards a crowd of thousands of people in northern Gaza to remove what it said was "an immediate threat".
It said initial findings suggested reported casualty figures were inflated, and it "certainly does not intentionally target humanitarian aid trucks."
The new raid and escalating number of fatalities appeared to be complicating ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel that are being mediated by Qatar and Egypt, with US backing.
A Hamas official said the militant group was angered over the mounting deaths and the hunger crisis in the Palestinian territory, and that this could badly affect ceasefire talks under way in Qatar.
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Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks in Doha aimed at reaching a 60-day ceasefire and hostage deal, although there has been no sign of breakthrough.
Since the start of the war, nearly all of Gaza's population of more than two million - which is also facing severe food shortages - has been displaced at least once by repeated Israeli evacuation orders. #
According to OCHA, the latest order means that 87.8% of Gaza's area is under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones.
UNRWA, the UN refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said that it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have increased 40-fold.
