The number of deaths among newborns in the Gaza Strip is increasing, as infants are born at lower than normal weight, according to the World Health Organization.

The spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, Margaret Harris, said in a press briefing in Geneva, today, Tuesday, that “various doctors, specifically in maternity hospitals, are reporting a significant increase in the number of children born with low birth weight.”

She stressed that "they do not survive the postpartum period, given that they were born very young."

She added that at Kamal Adwan Medical Complex, the only children's hospital in northern Gaza, "at least 15 malnourished children enter (the facility) every day, and the needs are increasing more sharply than ever before."

The World Health Organization cannot provide accurate statistics on deaths among children as a result of the devastation that befell the Gaza Strip after six months of war between Israel and Hamas, as Harris indicated that many people do not even go to the hospital.

Referring to a patient stabilization center established last week, she said that the patients sleeping in the center are usually children suffering from diseases and malnutrition.

On Monday, the Israeli army withdrew from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City after a two-month military operation that destroyed most parts of the complex, where bodies were scattered. The complex was the largest hospital in the Strip.

Harris reported that the Shifa Complex “is no longer able to function in any way as a hospital.”

She added, "Destroying Al-Shifa means uprooting the heart of the health system," noting that it was a major hospital with 750 beds, 25 surgical operating rooms, and 30 intensive care wards.