The main COVID-19 testing center in Gaza city was damaged due to intensive Israeli fighter jet strikes waged on the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian health official said Tuesday.
Yousef Abu al-Reesh, health ministry director-general in Gaza, told reporters that the COVID-19 testing center in the Remal neighborhood in western Gaza city has completely stopped operating due to the Israeli airstrikes on the area.
He added that a compound, which includes a laboratory, health ministry offices and an outpatient clinic, was badly damaged after several buildings surrounding the compound were completely destroyed by the airstrikes.
He also said that several doctors and health ministry staff were injured following the Israeli destruction of the buildings on Monday night.
The senior health official called on the international community, mainly the World Health Organization, to ensure full protection of the health ministry facilities in the Gaza Strip.
"The Gaza Strip needs the help of health and humanitarian organizations to ensure medical supplies needed for the protection of medical staff amid the spread of coronavirus in the world," he said.
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