The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has accused the Israeli military of having blocked a convoy evacuating 24 patients from Gaza’s Khan Younis for seven hours.

The convoy was stopped right after leaving the al-Amal hospital in the city in southern Gaza on Sunday, according to an OCHA statement issued on Tuesday.

“The Israeli military forced patients and staff out of the ambulances and stripped all paramedics of their clothes,” OCHA said.

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“Three PRCS paramedics were subsequently detained, although their personal details had been shared with the Israeli forces in advance, while the rest of the convoy stayed in the place for over seven hours.”

Among the patients were one pregnant woman and a mother with her newborn.

The Israeli army said it was looking into the report.

One of the detained paramedics was released again by Tuesday, according to OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke.

The patients were later transported to other facilities, but it had not been possible to evacuate another 31 seriously ill people from the hospital which has been destroyed by some 40 attacks within one month, according to the UN agency.

In addition to the patients, some 180 people sheltering in the facility as well as 45 relatives of care workers remain at the hospital.

“This is not an isolated incident,” Laerke said. “Aid convoys have come under fire and are systematically denied access to people in need.

“Humanitarian workers have been harassed, intimidated or detained by Israeli forces, and humanitarian infrastructure had been hit,” he said.