GENEVA - The World Health Organization called on Friday for a humanitarian corridor to be set up in Gaza to allow aid workers to evacuate the wounded and bring in life-saving medicines. In a statement, the U.N. health agency said that four hospitals, including al-Aqsa hospital in the coastal strip, had been damaged in the conflict that began on July 8 when Israel launched airstrikes, followed by a ground invasion.
"WHO calls for the creation of a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of the injured, as well as for the supply of life-saving medicines," the statement said. "The humanitarian corridor should extend to protect the safe passage of patients to access crossing points and exit outside the Gaza Strip for medical care." Meanwhile, Gaza officials said an Israeli airstrike on Friday killed the top spokesman for armed faction Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally. That brought the mostly civilian Palestinian death toll to 804. Israel has lost 32 soldiers in a Gaza ground advance it says aims to destroy cross-border infiltration tunnels used by Hamas to threaten its southern villages and army bases.
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