GENEVA, March 2 (Reuters) – The World Health Organization said on Monday that a hospital in Iran’s capital has been evacuated after explosions nearby and that it is working to verify reports that three other medical centres in the country had been hit since the start of the U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran on February 28.
“We understand patients were moved due to nearby explosions that caused collateral damage to the hospital,” said a WHO spokesperson, referring to the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran.
Witnesses told Reuters on March 1 that the hospital had been hit by Israeli strikes.
The WHO spokesperson said that it is working to verify reports about alleged damage to the Motahari Hospital in Tehran and emergency medical centres in Sarab, in northwestern Iran, and another in the western province of Hamadan.
The WHO has a country office in Iran and works with the government on health emergencies and disease control. It seeks to verify attacks on health systems across the world, without attributing blame.
Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said in a speech to the Human Rights Council on Monday that hospitals had been subjected to “indiscriminate attacks”, without giving details.
(Reporting by Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Friederike Heine)
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