Israel-Gaza updates: Poliovirus detected in wastewater across Gaza, WHO says

The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release journalists held without charge and allow free, unimpeded access to Gaza ahead of his planned trip to the U.S.

“From the start of the war, Israel has continuously denied independent access to the media as Palestinian journalists struggle to survive. The loss of local journalists, an almost total ban on media from outside Gaza leaves a vacuum for propaganda, mis and disinformation. Claims and counterclaims remain extraordinarily difficult to verify independently. Facts are easily evaded and truth withers. No credible democracy engages in what is, in effect, a growing censorship regime," Jodie Ginsburg, the CEO of CPJ, said in a statement Wednesday.

More than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 and others have been arrested, often without charge, according to the CPJ.

"Journalists, like the thousands of civilians in Gaza killed, arrested or displaced continue to pay an astonishing toll," Ginsburg said.

"An unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested, often without charge. They have been mistreated and tortured. The number of journalists reporting in Gaza is dwindling, and those who remain are doing so in treacherous conditions, but they cannot do so alone," Ginsburg said.

-ABC News' Guy Davies

The World Health Organization has registered more than 1,000 attacks on health care facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, the agency’s top official in the region said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

There are currently no functional hospitals in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, following Israel’s recent offensive there, according to Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza.

Peeperkorn highlighted the urgency of allowing critically ill patients to leave the war-torn enclave, stating that around 10,000 patients in Gaza still require urgent evacuation –- half of whom are suffering from severe trauma, including spinal injuries and amputations.

-ABC News' Camilla Alcini

The Israel Defense Forces has carried out 37,000 airstrikes on Gaza and targetted more than 25,000 terrorist infrastructures and launch sites since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, the IDF said Tuesday.

The IDF also acknowledged carrying out strikes on hospitals, schools and humanitarian shelters throughout the Gaza Strip, claiming to target "terrorists who are located and based in sensitive sites," the IDF said in a statement.

At least 23 people were killed and 73 others were injured after Israel struck a UNRWA school in a designated safe zone where displaced people are sheltering. Five UNRWA schools have been hit in the last 10 days, according to the UNRWA.

"UN facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting purposes. No one is safe in Gaza, wherever they are. The people of #Gaza are children, women & men who have the right to live," the UNRWA said Tuesday.

In another strike on a safe zone in Mawasi Khan Yunis, at least 17 people were killed and 26 others were injured.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it struck the school, alleging it struck terrorists who were operating in a UNRWA school.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky