Israel-Gaza updates: Nasser Hospital no longer 'functional,' WHO chief says

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has prompted the fury of Israeli officials by comparing Israel's war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip to the Nazi genocide during World War II.

"What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews," Lula said at a news conference Sunday at the 37th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa.

Lula also condemned the suspension of humanitarian aid to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, calling for an investigation into what he described as "genocide."

"It's not a war between soldiers and soldiers. It's a war between a highly prepared army and women and children," Lula said.

The UNRWA is facing criticism and financial strain after Israel claimed 12 of the group's staff members in Gaza were implicated in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The allegations prompted the United States, Germany, the European Union and other countries to suspend funding for the UNRWA.

Lula's comments led to a swift and angry response from Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, who issued a statement calling Lula's remarks "disgraceful and grave." Netanyahu condemned Lula for "this trivialization of the Holocaust."

"Drawing comparisons between Israel and the Nazis and Hitler is to cross a red line," Netanyahu said, adding in a separate statement that Lula "has disgraced the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, and demonized the Jewish state like the most virulent anti-Semite."

-ABC News' Yael Benaya, Jordana Miller and Aicha El Hammar

Nasser Hospital "is not functional anymore" after Israeli forces raided the facility in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the head of the World Health Organization said.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the U.N. health agency, said a WHO team was not allowed to enter the facility in the city of Khan Younis on Friday or Saturday "to assess the conditions of the patients and critical medical needs, despite reaching the hospital compound to deliver fuel alongside partners."

There are still about 200 patients in the hospital, including 20 who need urgent referrals to other hospitals, the WHO chief said in a statement on X.

Israel says it has apprehended about 100 suspected terrorists in the hospital, including 20 who it says participated in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. The military says it is looking for the remains of hostages inside the facility and does not target doctors or patients.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said a large number of medical staff were arrested by the Israel Defense Forces that turned the facility into military barracks. The facility is Gaza's largest remaining operating hospital and the strip's second-largest hospital.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres

A large number of Nasser Hospital medical staff were arrested by the Israel Defense Forces, which turned the facility into military barracks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The IDF said it apprehended 100 people "suspected of terrorist activity" in the hospital so far.

-ABC News' Emma Ogao and Yael Benaya

As the death toll continues to rise, Hamas reiterated on Saturday that it will not accept an agreement with Israel without an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the terror group said in a statement.

"The resistance will not accept anything less than a complete cessation of aggression, the withdrawal of the occupation army from the Gaza Strip, the lifting of the unjust siege, the provision of safe and appropriate shelter for the displaced and those made homeless because of the occupation’s crimes, the return of the displaced, especially to the north of the Gaza Strip, an end to the barbaric starvation policy, and a commitment to reconstruction, all of which are humanitarian requirements and the subject of consensus among the United Nations, human rights institutions and the decision of the International Court of Justice, and the occupation must comply with them," the group's political head Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement.

-ABC News' Ayat Al-Tawy