hospital morgue tour

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Tour the Hospital Complex

Ellis Island Part of Statue of Liberty National Monument

Walking tour is 90 minutes in length.

Visit the unrestored buildings on Ellis Island's 'South Side' through a Hard Hat Tour administered by Save Ellis Island Inc.

All participants must be 13 years of age or older. Participants under the age 18 years old must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian at all times during the tour.

The tour costs $53 for adults and $49 for seniors. This price includes the ferry and audio tour for both Liberty and Ellis Island.

Ellis Island is only accessible by ferry.

Reservations are made through Statue Cruises and are for a specific time and date. Be aware that there are many restrictions to this tour, and it is the participant's responsibility to be aware of and adhere to the rules. Save Ellis Island reserves the right to refuse entry to the tour or remove any participant who does not comply. Tour participants must stay with a Save Ellis Island guide at all times. Unauthorized entry of areas off the guided tour will be considered trespassing. Violators will be subject to arrest and prosecution. Each participant must wear a hard hat, which will be provided by Save Ellis Island for use during the tour. Each participant is to sign a waiver before taking this tour, and anyone under the age of 18 must have a parent/guardian sign the waiver for them.

Tours will be held regardless of the weather; except in cases of extreme cold, heat or forecast of significant snow/ice. Save Ellis Island will make every effort to notify participants within 24 hrs of cancelling tours due to weather.  The buildings are not climate controlled and participants must be properly dressed for weather conditions in New York Harbor on the day of their tour. This may include rain, snow or wind. In extreme weather, the National Park Service may close the island early or for the entire day, requiring cancellation of tours.

When purchasing the tickets, participants will have to select a specific time. Times vary throughout the year depending on hours of operation.

• The unrestored buildings do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements at this time. Participants must be able to climb stairs. We regret that visitors with wheelchairs or scooters are not permitted on the tour at this time.
• Participants should expect to be on their feet for 90 minutes.
• Wear comfortable, closed-toe shoes. Sandals, flip-flops, open-toed shoes, and high heels are not permitted.
• ellis island part of statue of liberty national monument

Visit the unrestored hospital complex on Ellis Island! Administered by Save Ellis Island Inc., this 90-minute tour takes visitors through select areas of the 750-bed hospital on Ellis Island. Some highlights of the tour include visiting the laundry building where over 3000 pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized daily. Visitors will also have a chance to see the infectious and contagious disease ward, the kitchen, staff housing, and the morgue. A n art exhibit “Unframed – Ellis Island” created by renowned artist JR will be on display throughout the hospital complex. The exhibit features life size historic photographs of Ellis Island immigrants installed on 16 interior walls.

Last updated: January 27, 2021

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Statue of Liberty National Monument | HARD HAT TOUR OF THE ELLIS ISLAND HOSPITAL

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Hard Hat Tour of the Ellis Island Hospital Complex

Story by Rebecca Dieumegarde and Steve Markos Hospital photos by Rebecca Dieumegarde and Steve Markos

HARD HAT TOUR LOGISTICS

Save Ellis Island, Inc. , the National Park Service partner organization that helps with the preservation of the buildings on Ellis Island, operates a tour of the Hospital Complex, a collection of dilapidated buildings on the south side of the island. The tour takes its name from the fact that participants must wear hard hats. This is the only way to see the hospital ruins, and aside from the Main Immigration building (now the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration ), it is the only area of the island open to tourists.

Main immigration building at Ellis Island

Tours are held six times a day from March through December and four times a day in January and February. There is a fee, and you can purchase tickets in advance on the Statue Cruises website, the official ticket vendor and ferry operator for Statue of Liberty National Monument, or in person the day of the tour at the National Park Service information desk in the Immigration Museum (if any tickets remain). I highly recommend getting a ticket in advance, as only fifteen people are allowed on each tour.

The current price of the Hard Hat Tour is $75, and this includes a General Admission ticket for Statue of Liberty National Monument (a $25 value). This allows you to visit the grounds of Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty Museum  but does not include entrance into the Statue of Liberty itself. If you want to get inside, you’ll need either a Pedestal or Crown ticket, and you must purchase one of these in addition to the Hard Hat Tour ticket. See the Tickets web page here on National Park Planner for complete information on the types of tickets and how to purchase them.

Information desk at the Ellis Island National Immigration Museum

Tickets for the Hard Hat Tour are not that difficult to get because of the extra fee, plus most people come to the park to see the Statue of Liberty. I attended the 1:30 PM tour on a busy Saturday and only 12 of the 15 tickets were sold in advance, though the remaining three tickets were purchased by walk-up customers.

If departing from Battery Park in Manhattan, the ferry stops at Liberty Island before Ellis Island. The trip to Ellis Island itself takes about an hour, but you must also factor in time to go through security before boarding the ferry. If traveling from Liberty State Park in New Jersey, Ellis Island is the first stop (about 20 minutes from the time you board the ferry). You still have to go through security, but the lines in New Jersey are usually much shorter.

The way ticketing for the Hard Hat Tour works, assuming you only want to do the Hard Hat Tour and are not interested in visiting the Statue of Liberty, is that you pick a time to get into the security line at the ferry, and this time corresponds to a Hard Hat Tour. For example, when purchasing a ticket with a 10 AM security check-in, you are purchasing a 12:30 PM Hard Hat Tour. The current March through December tour times are 9 AM security / 11:30 AM tour; 9:30 AM / 12 PM; 10 AM / 12:30 PM; 11 AM / 1:30 PM; 11:30 AM / 2 PM; 12 PM / 2:30 PM. All six departure / tours are available from Liberty State Park, but only four are available from Battery Park. With any of these security / tour time scenarios, if you are leaving from Battery Park, you need to go directly to Ellis Island. Do not stop at Liberty Island. If time allows, you can travel to Liberty Island after the Hard Hat Tour.

Keep in mind that the security check-in time does not mean you are going to get on a ferry at or near that time. Furthermore, during the summer you need to be in line an hour prior to check-in time because there are hundreds of other people with the same ticket (a half-hour prior should work for the off season). Notice that the time between security check-in and Hard Hat Tour is 1.5 hours with a 9 AM check-in and 2.5 hours with a 12 PM check-in. This is because the line gets longer as the day wears on. With a Hard Hat Ticket, or any ticket purchased online, you get to use the Priority security line instead of the general admission security line, which is usually a much longer line. Even so, on a busy day I have my doubts about getting to Ellis Island from Battery Park by 2:30 PM with a 12 PM security check-in time unless they move Hard Hat Tour ticket holders right to the front of the line. I’ve done two Hard Hat Tours, and the reason I don’t know about getting moved to the front is because I have never done a Hard Hat Tour on its own.

Like most tourists, I want to stop at both Liberty and Ellis Islands, and as long as I purchase a 9 AM / 11:30 AM Hard Hat Tour ticket, there is plenty of time to visit Liberty Island after the tour. But what if all that remains is a 2:30 PM Hard Hat Tour and I can’t go through security until 12 PM? There would be no time to stop at Liberty Island after the tour, which doesn’t even end until 4 PM (the park closes at 5 PM). What I must therefore do is purchase a separate General Admission, Pedestal, or Crown ticket with an earlier security check-in time. This is what I’ve always done, which is why I’ve never been in a hurry to get to Ellis Island for my Hard Hat Tour.

I’m about to give you the best advice you are ever going to get if you are departing from Battery Park and want to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and do the Hard Hat Tour without being rushed. Purchase either an 11:30 AM or 2:30 PM Hard Hat Tour ticket, currently the first and last tours of the day. Either way, your goal is to get on the very first ferry, which currently departs at 9 AM. To do so, purchase a separate 9 AM check-in ticket for the Pedestal or the Crown of the Statue of Liberty—forget General Admission. Even though your ticket states 9 AM security check-in, security actually opens at 8:30 AM. Be in line at least by then, and 8 AM is even better.

When I visited in August, I was in line at 8 AM along with 50 or so other people. Security opened at 8:30 AM, and ten minutes later I was waiting to board the ferry. Had I arrived at 8:30 AM, I’m sure I still would have gotten on the first boat, but better safe than sorry. I booked the 2:30 PM Hard Hat Tour, so I went to Liberty Island first, arriving at 9:30 AM. I had time to visit the Statue of Liberty Museum and go inside the statue with my Pedestal Ticket. I did all I came to do and was on the boat to Ellis Island by 11:30 AM. I arrived at Ellis Island twenty minutes later, had lunch, visited the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, and was ready for my Hard Hat Tour without any rushing. I headed back to Battery Park at 4 PM. If you book the early Hard Hat Tour, visit Ellis Island first, then take the New Jersey ferry to Liberty Island and spend the rest of the day visiting the Statue of Liberty.

I just wanted to thank you so much for your wonderful and very thorough blog concerning the Ellis Island Hard Hat tour. You had great tips on how to do both this tour and the Statue of Liberty Pedestal (this is not very clear from the ticket website), and they were spot on! I took the first pedestal tour from Battery Park, had plenty of time at the pedestal (I was the first person in), to enjoy both the pedestal and main museum on Liberty Island, and to catch the 11:40 ferry to Ellis Island. I checked in/signed the waiver for the Hard Hat tour right away per your recommendation, then had plenty of time to tour the exhibits there and have a quick lunch at the café to make the 2:30 Hard Hat Tour (which was great!).  Again, thank you so much for making my visit perfect!

I also attended the Hard Hat Tour on the Saturday prior to the New York City Marathon (November 4th). I got in the security line at 10 AM, and it took two hours to get through security. By the time I docked at Ellis Island it was 1 PM, and my tour was at 1:30 PM. When departing from Battery Park, I highly suggest that regardless of your Hard Hat Tour time, get on the 9 AM ferry one way or another.

If leaving from Liberty State Park in New Jersey, I suggest getting the earliest Hard Hat Tour and visiting the Statue of Liberty afterwards. From Liberty State Park, you shouldn’t have any problems getting to Ellis Island in time for your tour if you arrive at check-in time.

Upon arrival at Ellis Island, head inside the museum and sign in for the tour at the National Park Service information desk. All participants must sign a waiver. The tour operator asks that you arrive one hour prior to your tour, but this is not necessary. You just need to show up early enough to sign your name. I don’t recommend arriving with five minutes to spare, but fifteen minutes or more should be fine. Once you register, feel free to roam around. Just be back at the information desk ten minutes or so before your tour time. Look for a tour guide wearing a hard hat.

The Hard Hat Tour lasts 1.5 hours, and you will be standing for almost the entire time. There are a few stairs, but the walk is not very demanding, so the tour is appropriate for most people. The buildings, however, are not accessible to those in wheelchairs, walkers, or strollers. Also, guests must be at least 13 years old to attend, and those under 18 must be accompanied by a person at least 18 years old. No sandals, flip-flops, or other open-toed or high-heeled shoes are permitted. There are no restrooms at the hospital.

No audio or video recordings are permitted during the tour, but you can take photos without a flash. You cannot bring tripods or other photography accessories.

ELLIS ISLAND HOSPITAL HISTORY

From 1892 until 1954, over 12 million immigrants passed through the Ellis Island Immigration Depot. Upon arrival, each person was subject to a health and psychological inspection. Those who did not pass the initial visual inspection had their shirts or jackets marked with chalk to indicate that further evaluation was required. Approximately 20 percent of the immigrants failed the visual inspection, though most were treated and later allowed to enter the country. Only around 2 percent of the total immigrants coming through Ellis Island were deported, with less than one percent due to having an incurable disease (the rest were sent back for legal reasons).

Ellis Island, which is almost entirely man-made, is comprised of three separate islands. The first island was the checkpoint where all immigrants arrived (the section where the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration is located). This was the only island that existed from the time the Immigration Depot opened in 1892 up until 1902. During these years, immigrants with infectious diseases were quarantined at hospitals on Hoffman and Swinburne islands.

Model on display inside the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration of the wooden building complex on the expanded Ellis Island in 1897

All buildings on Ellis Island, which were originally made of wood, burned down in a fire on June 15, 1897. The federal government rebuilt the facility using stone and brick, and when it reopened in December 1900, plans were made to build a second island to house Ellis Island’s own 125-bed hospital. This was completed in March 1902. The facility was quickly overwhelmed by patients, and additional buildings were constructed over the next few years. However, those with infectious diseases continued to be quarantined at other hospitals in the Manhattan area.

Model of Ellis Island in 1903 on display inside the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration

The third island was built to hold a Contagious Diseases hospital. The facility was completed in 1909 but did not open until 1911 due to a lack of equipment. There was a 200-foot harbor separating the General Hospital from the Contagious Diseases facility, a distance that was believed to be adequate in preventing diseases from spreading. The harbor was filled in to create a small green space in the 1920s.

Model of Ellis Island around 1920 on display inside the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration

Satellite view of Ellis Island today

The Ellis Island hospital closed in 1930, though some of the buildings were used as offices for the FBI. During World War II the island was used by the U. S. Coast Guard, and the hospital reopened to treat wounded soldiers. German and Italian POWs where also interned on the island. After the war, part of the facility continued to be used as a military hospital. It wasn’t until 1954 that Ellis Island was entirely closed and the buildings began to decay due to non use.

See the main Ellis Island web page here on National Park Planner to learn more about the history of the island.

VIRTUAL HARD HAT TOUR

The Ellis Island Hospital complex is located on Island 2 (General Hospital) and Island 3 (Contagious Diseases Hospital). An enclosed corridor makes it possible to walk to any building on the island without venturing outdoors. However, depending on the weather, your tour guide may take the group outside instead, cutting across the lawn from the Main Immigration Building to the first stop on the tour, the restored Art Deco-style Ferry Building from 1936. This is where the ferry originally docked at Ellis Island. The building also had offices for the U. S. Customs Service and a lunchroom.

The current Ferry Building replaced an older, dilapidated building that was torn down in 1935. It was built by the Works Progress Administration, an organization designed to get men back to work during the Great Depression by building public works in urban areas. The Ferry Building was restored between 2000 and 2007 by the Save Ellis Island Foundation. As far as the Hard Hat Tour is concerned, this is where the tour group gets its hard hats before heading over to the General Hospital on Island 2.

1936 Ferry Building is where the ferry originally docked at Ellis Island

Inside the restored Ferry Building on Ellis Island

The next stop on the Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour is the hospital’s Laundry Outbuilding in New Jersey. Yes, you heard that right. While Island 1 is in New York, Islands 2 and 3 are in New Jersey. The small, multi-gabled Laundry building is first building you come to when reaching the other side of the harbor between Islands 1 and 2. This facility was completed in December 1901. In addition to housing disinfecting and laundry cleaning equipment, the building had dorm rooms for staff, a morgue, and an autopsy room.

The laundry facility consisted of two large washers and one dryer. Sheets were washed, dried, and ironed, and then placed directly on the beds to avoided being folded. This prevented creases from forming, which could lead to bed sores. Three thousand pieces of linen were washed daily.

Industrial laundry cleaning equipment left behind in the Laundry Building on Ellis Island

Laundry cleaning equipment left behind in the Ellis Island Laundry Building

After the Laundry building, the tour heads outside and stops behind the General Hospital. These are the buildings you see when looking across the harbor from the Main Immigration Building. The lawn area that you will be standing on was once the harbor between Islands 2 and 3, and if you recall from the above article on the history of Ellis Island, in the 1920s this was filled in to create a green space.

General Hospital building at Ellis Island

Layout of the Ellis Island Hospital complex

The General Hospital is where physically and mentally sick immigrants with non-contagious diseases were treated. This could be anyone from a pregnant woman to a person suspected of being mentally ill. The complex is made up of three buildings that were constructed in stages between 1900 and 1909. The original hospital building, which officially opened in 1902, is the second building from the Laundry Building (the building next to the laundry is the Psychopathic Ward built in 1906). The middle building, the Administration Building, opened in 1907. The third building, which is nearly identical to the original hospital, opened in 1909. Unfortunately, none of these buildings, including the Psych Ward, are stable, so nobody is allowed inside.

Back side of the Psych Ward (closest building) and General Hospital buildings on Ellis Island

Bordering the lawn between Islands 2 and 3 is another restored building called the Shelter. As with the Ferry Building, this was built by the WPA in the 1930s, and as the name implies, it was nothing more than a place to relax on a hot day.

The Shelter, part of the Ellis Island General Hospital complex

From the General Hospital, the tour cuts across the lawn towards Island 3 where the Contagious Diseases Hospital is located. Built from 1906 to 1911, the Contagious Diseases buildings have been stabilized and are visited on the tour.

Entering the Contagious Diseases Hospital on the Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour

Contagious Diseases buildings of the hospital complex on Ellis Island

As you tour the Contagious Diseases Hospital, you will see various examples of art by a French street artist known as JR. These consist of historical photographs that were enlarged and then wheat-pasted to the walls and windows. Like the decaying buildings themselves, the art will one day peel off and end up in ruins. On one of the windows that looks out into a courtyard between two hospital wards is a photo of children with favus, a disease that affects the scalp. In most cases, this could be cured, but the treatment was extremely painful. Today, fauvs is rare and can be treated with topical and oral medications. (The documentary film Faces Places is about JR and received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary in 2017.)

Photograph of children with favus, enlarged and pasted to the windows by street artist JR inside the Contagious Diseases Hospital on Ellis Island

A 750-foot corridor runs the length of the Contagious Diseases Hospital, connecting all buildings together. Branching off from the corridor on either side is a series of hospital wards that once held up to 14 beds each. Oftentimes the nurses’ station would be behind a glass window so they could watch the patients without having to unnecessarily expose themselves to contagious diseases. While approximately 3,500 people died on Ellis Island, surprisingly, no doctor or nurse passed away or became infected with any disease.

Corridor connects all buildings in the Contagious Disease Hospital on Ellis Island

The first stop at the Contagious Diseases Hospital is at a multipurpose building located at the very northwest corner of Island 3. The building featured a powerhouse, a laundry facility, and a mattress autoclave, a machine that was used to sanitize up to four mattresses at once.

Mattress autoclave inn the Contagious Diseases Hospital on Ellis Island

Also located in the corner building is the morgue, a section of which doubled as a medical training facility. With the wide variety of people who passed through Ellis Island, the medical students were able to learn a great deal about ailments from around the world. The multi-tiered area with steps on either side is where students would sit to watch autopsies and other medical demonstrations. This is one stop on the tour where participants can sit while listening to the tour guide.

Training facility in the morgue of the Ellis Island Contagious Diseases Hospital

Refrigerated storage for corpses at the Contagious Diseases Hospital morgue on Ellis Island

As the tour continues down the corridor, there are a number of open rooms that you can take a peak inside.

Ruins of a former ward at the Ellis Island Contagious Diseases Hospital

Abandoned hospital ward at the Ellis Island Contagious Diseases Hospital

The next stop on the Hard Hat Tour is the Administration Building, the large building at the center of the Contagious Diseases Hospital. The desks and other furniture were left behind by the Coast Guard, which occupied Ellis Island from 1939 to 1946 and again from 1951 until 1954. The 1924 National Origins Act allowed potential immigrants to have their paperwork processed and health and other inspections done in their home countries, thus making a facility like Ellis Island less important. When World War II broke out in 1939, the island was used as a training facility for the Coast Guard, though the hospital continued as a functioning hospital. Once the United Stated entered the war, the hospital was mainly used to treat injured soldiers. The few immigrants on the island were either criminals or terminally ill who were waiting to be deported, or those who somehow lost their papers on the way to America. In 1951 the Coast Guard established a Port Security Unit that remained in operation until all facilities on Ellis Island were closed in 1954.

Offices at the Contagious Diseases Hospital on Ellis Island

The hospital kitchen is located behind the Administration Building, and it was here that 1,500 meals a day were prepared and served. Mothers and children were given milk and biscuits twice a day. Not much remains of the kitchen other than a range hood and a few tables. Notice the JR artwork underneath the range hood. This photo is of a ferryboat built in 1904, the Ellis Island , and it is upside down. After Ellis Island closed in 1954, the Ellis Island remained docked at the island, rotting away with the rest of the buildings until it sank during a storm in 1968. The boat was finally removed in 2009. The JR artwork is positioned so that the range hood appears to be the hull of the upside down ferry.

Range hood at the former hospital kitchen on Ellis Island

Old kitchen tables and equipment left behind at the Ellis Island Contagious Diseases Hospital

Tour participants can see some of the actual patient rooms, as well as a communal restroom. The rooms themselves had sinks, but no toilet or shower. Patient rooms in the tuberculosis ward had two sinks. The taller one, which was situated closer to the bed, was for vomiting or regurgitating blood, while the lower sink was used for hygiene purposes.

Patient Room at the Ellis Island Contagious Diseases Hospital

Bathroom with shower and tub in the contagious diseases section of the Ellis Island Hospital complex

Farther down the hallway are the operating rooms. JR’s artwork depicts surgeons and nurses preparing for an operation, and a photo of a surgeon adorns the entrance to the operating room.

Artwork adorns the wall of an operating room at the Ellis Island Contagious Diseases Hospital

Photo of an Ellis Island doctor at the door of the operating room

Inside an operating room at the Ellis Island Contagious Diseases Hospital

The final stop on the Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour is the home of one of the two head doctors on the island, the Chief of Psychiatric and the Chief of Surgery. There was a second house, but this was torn down. As unlikely as it sounds, both doctors lived within the Contagious Diseases Hospital along with their families.

Doctor’s house (right) on Ellis Island

Interior of the doctor’s house on Ellis Island

Kitchen of the doctor’s house on Ellis Island

Empty room in the doctor’s house on Ellis Island

The Hard Hat Tour concludes by exiting from the buildings and onto the grounds at the south side of the island. From here you can get some nice photos of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Total time for the tour is 1.5 hours, time well spent for those interested in history and old buildings.

View of Manhattan from the south end of Ellis Island

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Large bags are not allowed on Liberty or Ellis Islands. Backpacks, strollers and large umbrellas are not permitted in the Monument. Learn More: Things To Know Before You Visit the Statue of Liberty  

Statue of Liberty tours are self-guided, and can last between three to five hours, depending on your pace when you visit both Ellis and Liberty Island.

Hard Hat Tour of Ellis Island

Service Advisory for New York Departures: As of Thursday, February 8th, 2024, the Security Screening Facility will shift to a new location within Battery Park, 300 yards south of the current location behind the Castle Clinton National Monument. The new Security Screening Facility location is next to the View restaurant within Battery Park. Visitors who purchase tickets in advance before arrival to Battery Park can bypass the Ticket Office and proceed directly to the Security Screening Facility. Crown ticket holders must check in at the Ticket Office inside the Castle Clinton National Monument before entering the Security Screening Facility.

Availability: Daily, Starting March 1

• All participants must be 13 years of age or older.
• Participants should expect to be on their feet for 90 minutes.
• Your reservation assigns you to a scheduled tour, and the departure and start times will be printed on your ticket. Your Hard Hat tour begins 90 minutes after departure. You must check in at the Save Ellis Island Information Desk on the ground floor of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum when you arrive on the island and again at the start time for your tour. The reservation is non-transferrable. If you miss your scheduled Hard Hat Tour, you will not be able to join anoother Hard Hat Tour.
• Tour participants must stay with a Save Ellis Island guide at all times. Unauthorized entry of areas off the guided tour will be considered trespassing. Violators will be subject to arrest and prosecution.
• Each participant must wear a hard hat, which will be provided by Save Ellis Island for use during the tour.
• Tours will be held regardless of the weather, and the buildings are not climate controlled. Participants must be properly dressed for weather conditions in New York Harbor on the day of their tour. This may include rain, snow or wind. In extreme weather, the National Park Service may close the island early or for the entire day, requiring cancellation of the tours.
• There are no working bathrooms on the south side of Ellis Island. Please make use of the facilities in the Immigration Museum before reporting for the tour.
• Wear comfortable, closed-toe shoes. Sandals, flip-flops, open-toed shoes and high heels are not permitted.
• Participants understand that they will enter unrestored buildings containing potential hazards including broken glass, uneven walking surfaces, dust, cracks and loose fixtures. Participants will exercise care to avoid all hazards.
• These unrestored building do not comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. Participants must be able to climb stairs. We regret that visitors with wheelchairs or scooters are not permitted on the tour.
• Per National Park Service regulations, removal or disturbance of historic artifacts on Ellis Island is prohibited. Participants will not touch anything in the hospital buildings unless specifically permitted by the Save Ellis Island tour guide.
• Still photography is allowed as long as it does not delay the tour, at the Save Ellis Island tour guide's discretion. Additional camera gear such as tripods, unipods and additional lighting is not permitted.
• For your safety, visitors are not allowed to take video while walking.

Duration: Approx. 3 hours

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A tour of Ellis Island’s abandoned hospital complex reveals a historic—and complicated—gateway to America

The nation’s largest public health service hospital was a state-of-the-art facility that treated thousands of immigrants in the early 1900s

By Roadtrippers

After arriving on Ellis Island in the early 1900s, up to 6,000 immigrants a day would ascend to the Registry Room, located on the second floor of the main intake building. Doctors would assess the newcomers as they walked up the stairs, and if anything was amiss, a person would receive a chalk mark on their chest. Those with suspected mental defects were marked with an X. People with visible eye diseases were given an E, heart issues got an H, and pregnant women received a Pg.

If you were one of the two percent of people who received one of the dreaded chalk marks, you were either sent back to your country of origin—at the shipping company’s expense—or sent to the south side of the island, to what was once the nation’s largest public health service hospital. At its peak, the state-of-the-art hospital complex, built between 1910 and 1924, had thirty buildings.

While visitors to Ellis Island may be familiar with the fully-restored main building located on the north side of the island, the buildings on the south side—closed in 1954—are lesser known. They sat abandoned for 60 years before opening again for tours—in their unrestored, decaying state—in October, 2014. Save Ellis Island , a non-profit organization, began offering H a rd Hat Tours in an effort to raise money to restore some of the buildings and to stabilize others in their current condition.

Island of hope

I first took the tour on a frigid day in January of 2015. Snow had drifted into some of the buildings through open windows and barren trees added to the eerie scene. The tour is a substantial 90 minutes long, but once was not enough for me and I returned this year on a much more hospitable day in June. I’ve explored my share of abandoned buildings (not usually on a sanctioned tour), and far from being depressing, I’m always struck by just how lively these otherwise-desolate places can feel.

Ellis Island in particular has stories in spades. Walking through long corridors and rooms darkened by the boards protecting what little window glass remains, it’s hard not to think about each and every foot that once made the floor creak as mine does. Abandoned places are unlikely record-keepers of our histories—not in the objects that they contain, but in the life that is notably absent. Chairs, rusty lockers, and desks are scattered about, forever stuck waiting for their human counterparts to return.

On the tour, visitors are allowed to enter select buildings, including the infectious and contagious disease wards, kitchen, laundry building, and mortuary and autopsy room. In a city where property is money, there aren’t many opportunities for visitors to legally explore buildings in such an exquisite state of decay.

John McInnes, director of operations for Save Ellis Island, says that the tour has been wildly popular. In the last five years, more than 100,000 people have donned a hard hat and braved the ferry crowded with tourists to get an intimate look at the crumbling structures.

“Preserving and restoring the hospital buildings is a complex, long-term project and Save Ellis Island is committed to increasing public access to the south side of Ellis Island during the restoration,” says McInnes.

The buildings themselves are enough of a draw, but they also serve as a backdrop for an arresting art installation, Unframed—Ellis Island , by French artist JR. In 2014, JR approached the National Park Service, requesting permission to install large-scale photographs taken during the island’s heyday on the walls and facades of the unrestored hospital complex.

“Save Ellis Island immediately saw in his demonstration of what he intended, that his art made the buildings come alive,” says McInnes. “It was this partnership between art and history that became an integral part of the reopening of the hospital complex.”

With any luck, the buildings won’t be crumbling for long. Save Ellis Island receives no state or federal funds, so they rely on revenue from tours to fund their restoration mission. “Our long term goal is to fully restore many of the buildings for historic interpretation and reuse,” says McInnes. “Others will be kept in a state of arrested decay—a kind of suspended animation that prevents further damage while showing what happens to historic sites if they’re not actively managed and preserved.”

Island of tears

From 1892 until 1954, more than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island. One in three Americans alive today can trace their heritage to someone who was processed on the 27-acre island in the New York harbor. The mostly man-made island continuously welcomed ships overflowing with steerage passengers eager for a new life in a new world (first- and second-class passengers were afforded the luxury of being processed on board their respective ships, and thus avoided Ellis Island altogether).

People were screened for health problems before they left for America, and once again when they arrived at Ellis Island. “The name of the game here is you had to arrive to be an able bodied citizen,” says Brett Moyer, a tour guide with Save Ellis Island.

Sending people back overseas was costly, and spreading diseases into the already-crowded streets of New York was a valid concern. In an attempt to encourage good hygiene, the Red Cross gave each person arriving at Ellis Island a bar of soap.

By the time the hospital was fully-operational, more than 10,000 patients from 75 different countries were treated in a year. But passing that initial health screening was not the end—and often just the beginning—of the trials faced by new Americans.

“Ellis Island is called ‘The Island of Hope, The Island of Tears,’” says Moyer. “But I think it’s a very hopeful island. I think the real island of tears is Manhattan.”

Death, disease, and over-crowding awaited anyone who chose New York as their final destination. Jobs were scarce, tenements were packed, and life expectancy was only in the mid-40s. On Ellis Island, however, the hospitals had a death rate of only about 1.6 percent. 3,500 people succumbed to diseases such as flu, tuberculosis, measles, or scarlet fever and were often buried on Hart Island, the city’s largest potter’s field.

At the general hospital for physical and psychological ailments, newcomers were questioned to determine their mental capacity or to see if they were a potential threat to society. When asked about the correct way to wash stairs—do you start at the top or the bottom?—Moyer says one woman famously replied, “Sir, I did not come to America to wash stairs.”

Despite the risk of infection, doctors and nurses lived on the island among their patients. A five-bed, four-bath doctors’ residence features fireplaces, ornate moldings, and sweeping harbor views. If given the choice between a Lower East Side tenement and a mansion in the middle of an infectious disease hospital, I would personally pick the latter. The fact that the doctors’ families were allowed to visit, but not live on, the island is a bonus.

“Caring doctors, nurses, and support staff treated hundreds of thousands of newcomers for conditions that would prevent them from working or endanger public health,” says McInnes.

So close, yet so far

The hospital complex was ahead of its time in many ways. It was one of the first facilities in the country to employ a full-time female physician; wards were open, warm, and inviting places with large windows for optimal ventilation and light; and doctors implemented the latest technologies including x-rays and fluoroscopy. It was the first hospital to install a buzzer system (in 1911) and an autoclave capable of sterilizing an entire mattress can still be seen on the tour.

The hospital was so prestigious that “once you worked here you could go anywhere,” says Moyer.

The infectious disease hospital had 17 separate wards, connected by a central corridor. Each room in the tuberculosis ward features two sinks—the smaller, higher of the two was used by patients coughing up blood. The wood floor is covered in burlap and a thin layer of concrete so it can easily be sanitized.

Although the 10-to-1 patient-nurse ratio was considered excellent at the time, Moyer shows us an archival photo of one nurse, who looks less than thrilled to be surrounded by her infectious patients. “You cover ten patients with the flu and you’re not going to look happy,” he says.

In one room, a mirror reflects a view of the nearby Statue of Liberty, a coincidence that Moyer describes as “inspiring but cruel.” “Patients were so close to America, but so far,” he says.

Three times a day, 500 hot meals were made in a surprisingly small kitchen. A separate kitchen prepared meals for those adhering to a Kosher diet, but not everyone was impressed with their introduction to American cuisine. “A lot of farmers were offended when they were served oatmeal,” says Moyer. “Back home, it’s what they fed their animals.”

The south side of the island not only saw death, but life as well. 350 babies were born in the hospital and often named for a doctor or nurse. The island’s foreign, man-made soil made the child’s journey even more complicated.

“For the first time in 60 years, visitors can stand in some of the same rooms and corridors as the patients who received care in the Ellis Island Hospital,” says McInnes. “They can imagine the emotions of immigrants who, despite language barriers, understood the dedication of the doctors, nurses, and support staff who worked there. And in the walls, floors, ceilings, and windows, visitors can see the urgency of the need to preserve these structures and their story.”

Patients were retained only until they were deemed healthy enough to move on, and one-third of the people leaving Ellis Island had only a short journey until they arrived at their final destination: New York City. The other two-thirds traveled to New Jersey, where they caught ferries to other parts of the country in search of a new life.

“If the Ellis Island Hospital had not existed, many Americans would not be here today,” says McInnes. “It is a monument for when America extended care and compassion to travelers to our shore.”

The tour is approximately 90 minutes and 1.5 miles long. Tickets are available through Statue Cruises and may also be purchased on Ellis Island. Same-day ticket sales are available on a first-come first-served basis

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Photos: Inside the Abandoned Hospital at Ellis Island

The 29-building hospital complex on the lesser-traveled south side of Ellis Island is a unique attraction in New York City. While most visitors head straight for the immigration museum, on the other side of the island there are so many more stories to be told. The hospital campus has been abandoned for over 50 years, but thanks to the preservation efforts of Save Ellis Island, many spaces are now open to the public on special hard hat tours led by the foundation’s docents.

These tours take visitors into places usually off-limits to the public, giving you exclusive access to the autopsy amphitheater, the laundry facilities, contagious disease wards, and more spaces. Check out photos of what you’ll see on the tour from our latest visit this spring!

Abandoned Hospital Tour on Ellis Island

You’ll start the journey to Ellis Island at the Castle Clinton ferry station in Lower Manhattan. Aboard the ferry, you’ll be treated to fantastic views of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty , where you’ll make a quick stop before heading toward Ellis Island.

Once you arrive at Ellis Island, you’ll head into the National Museum of Immigration which now occupies the former immigration station that opened on January 1, 1892. The very first immigrant processed at the station was a young Irish girl, Annie Moore . In total, more than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island over the course of its 60-plus years in operation.

Inside the museum, you’ll meet up with your tour guide and start your journey toward the hospital complex.

Before heading into any abandoned areas, you’ll pick up and put on your hard hats inside a restored part of the Art Deco Ferry Building. The 1936 structure was designed by Charles Delano of Delano and Aldrich. It connects the main registry building to the hospital campus. Long left in ruin, the building was reopened in 2007 after a $6.4 million restoration.

One of the first stops on the tour is inside the laundry building, a space that has been restored to a state of “arrested decay.” This means it doesn’t look like it would have in the early 20th century, but rather it is stabilized and safe in its current condition. Inside the building, you’ll see original machinery like washers, dryers, and presses.

Another restored space on the campus that you’ll see on the tour is the recreation pavilion . Located between the general hospital building and the contagious disease wards, the pavilion was built atop new land in 1934. This addition to the hospital allowed patients to enjoy the outdoors and take shelter in inclement weather. The pavilion also served as a performance space used by famous entertainers who came to put on shows for the U.S. Coastguard troops stationed at Ellis Island during the 1930s.

Construction on the hospital buildings began in 1900. Rather than just one large building, the hospital occupies many structures arranged in different pavilions. These pavilions are connected by a large system of tunnels and hallways.

Walking through the hallways and between buildings, you’ll find yourself at one point in the autopsy amphitheater. This space became a renowned teaching hall where medical students and professional observers from other institutions like Bellevue Hospital would come to watch demonstrations.

As you walk around the campus, you’ll find yourself face-to-face with some of the immigrants who were treated there. As part of the art installation Unframed , renowned photo artist JR combed through the Ellis Island archive and selected images of hospital patients and locations. He then took those images, enlarged them, and pasted them on the walls, floors, windows, and furniture throughout the complex.

The installation is site-specific, taking cues from and incorporating elements of the buildings themselves. In the photo above, the hospital kitchen’s oven hood once stood in for the hull of the ship in the pasted photo. In the former laboratory building, a large image of what the interior once looked like is pasted on the walls.

Throughout the course of the tour, you’ll see views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline that you can imagine must have invoked a wealth of emotion for those detained here. Check out the gallery for more photos from the tour, and join us to see these spaces for yourself by reserving a ticket here !

Next, check out 10 Secrets of Ellis Island’s Abandoned Hospital Complex

Nicole Saraniero

Cruise Around the Abandoned Islands of Manhattan on a Sunset Sail

I toured 2 Ellis Island hospitals that have been abandoned for 65 years. Here's what it's like inside the eerie, crumbling buildings.

• When immigrants were deemed too sick at Ellis Island, they were sent to two hospitals on the island.
• The hospitals still stand but are abandoned, so in 2019, I took a tour of the creepy buildings. 
• Inside, I found the walls were crumbling and the ceilings were falling down.

For many immigrants coming to America, Ellis Island was the entryway into their new lives, but 2% of immigrants never made it to the mainland.

Instead, they were turned away and sent back to their home countries, while others were sent to the hospitals on Ellis Island to be treated for diseases like measles and tuberculosis.

Ellis Island is a bustling museum that typically welcomes 4 million tourists each year . But the hospitals on the south side of the island are closed to the general public and have been left in ruin for 65 years.

In the fall of 2019, I gained access to the hospitals through a special hard hat tour operated by Save Ellis Island , a nonprofit organization devoted to rehabilitating the island.

Here's what it's like inside the abandoned and dilapidated ruins. 

Aboard the ferry from Manhattan to Ellis Island, I began retracing the steps so many immigrants took over 100 years ago.

The ferry left Manhattan from Battery Park, and the first stop was the Statue of Liberty. For the immigrants coming to the US, the Statue of Liberty was their first glimpse of America. But their ships didn't stop there. Instead, they stopped at Ellis Island, a processing hub where every immigrant had to be examined and cleared for entry into the country.

To really follow in the immigrants' footsteps, I decided not to get off at the Statue Liberty — which has been converted into a park for tourists — and instead headed directly for Ellis Island.

From the ferry, I caught my first glimpse of the hospital that now stands in ruins near Ellis Island’s main building.

The hospital complex consists of the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital and the Contagious and Infectious Disease Hospital.

Ellis Island is actually made up of three smaller islands which were not-so creatively named Island 1, Island 2, Island 3.

Island 2 was built just 100 yards away from the main building in 1902 to house a hospital that could treat 125 people . Eventually, two more small hospitals were built on this island to accommodate the growing number of sickly immigrants. Eventually, this general hospital had 750 beds, according to The New York Times. 

In 1907, Island 3 was built to house the Contagious and Infectious Disease Hospital. 

As I approached the main building, I was reminded that Ellis Island was a source of hope for many immigrants.

Opening in 1892, Ellis Island processed 12 million immigrants throughout the 60 years it was open. In its peak year, 1907, about 1.25 million immigrants were admitted through the island. 

While Ellis Island was meant to be passageway into a new life, it was also a source of anxiety and fear.

For most, it took under a day to get through the immigration process and gain access to the US. But not everyone who made the journey across the sea made it into the US. About 120,000 were denied entry and sent back to their home country. Meanwhile, immigrants who were deemed too sick or disabled to be admitted into the US were sent to the hospitals on the south side of the island.

Immigrants' fates were chosen in this room. Here, doctors took just six seconds to examine each immigrant to determine if they were healthy enough. If not, they were sent to the hospital.

The doctors in this large room in Ellis Island's main building would look for any physical or obvious illnesses  they could diagnose immediately. It could be anything from a limp to the measles. These people wouldn't immediately be sent back home. Instead, they would be taken to the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital or the Contagious and Infectious Disease Hospital, which were on nearby separate islands.

If an immigrant came to this diverging hallway, it meant they now had a 50-50 chance of making it into the US.

An immigrant who was sent down the left hallway would be heading to the general hospital, and the odds were likely that they would be cured of whatever ailments they had. They then would be allowed into the US. 

If they were taken down the right hallway, it meant they were going to the Contagious and Infectious Disease Hospital and their odds of successfully immigrating dropped dramatically. 

Just outside the main hospital, I was impressed by the opulent architecture.

Looking at the beauty of the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, it was almost easy to forget that around 1 million people were treated for illnesses and disabilities in this building . For some, this would be their last stop. 

On my tour, the first stop inside the building was the laundry room, which washed about 3,000 bed sheets per day.

Here, you can see the washing machine in the background and the dryer in the foreground. The toilet in the middle of the room was bizarrely left there when the hospital closed, and no one knows why.

The hospital was ahead of its time because the staff understood the importance of cleanliness in stopping the spread of germs.

Cleanliness was so important they would even sterilize mattresses in this chamber.

Today, the rusted door is still ajar.

Next door is the Psychopathic Building, which housed any immigrant with a mental illness.

If an immigrant was taken to the Psychopathic Building, they would never be allowed to live freely in the US. This building essentially acted as a holding cell until they found placement in one of the mental health facilities throughout the US. These immigrants would be confined to an institution for the rest of their lives.

Inside, the ceiling is crumbling and paper has fallen from the walls.

These rooms acted as jail cells for immigrants deemed mentally ill. Today, the floors have been chewed up by weather and time.

While some rooms are badly damaged, others are filled with rusted and ruined furniture.

When I noticed the rusted filing cabinet in this room, I imagined it had once been filled with patients' files. Today, the drawers are empty, much like the rest of this hospital. 

In the bathroom, the stalls still stand, but the sink lies lopsided on the floor.

Some parts of the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital still remain eerily intact, and, for me, that was the creepiest part. 

Adjacent to the Psychopathic Building is the maternity ward.

Doctors would pull a pregnant immigrant out of line if they felt she was too far along to travel safely to the mainland. The women were forced to stay at the hospital until they gave birth. In fact, 350 children were born on Ellis Island .

The tour did not allow me inside this building. 

After a brief tour of the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, it was time to make my way over to the Contagious and Infectious Disease Hospital.

Another 100 yards away on Island 3 sits the Contagious and Infectious Disease Hospital. Here, the length of stay for patients was between three weeks and a year.

Once inside, I could immediately feel the sense of dread in the long, dark hallways.

While most of the windows were boarded up, small slits of light snuck through, offering glimpses of the rundown building.

The hallways lead to rooms that are completely crumbling.

My tour guide did not explain what this room was initially used for. 

Meanwhile, other rooms are strangely filled with aging chairs.

In this part of the hospital, there were several rooms completely filled with chairs. Most of them were stacked on top of each other, while others were pushed into corners. 

On my tour, in the morgue, small doors on a giant refrigerator were open, offering a glimpse into darkened chambers inside.

The refrigerator once helped preserve dead bodies.

The room also acted as an operating theater. More experienced surgeons would perform surgeries to educate the younger doctors.

Strangely, historians cannot find a single photo taken in this room while it was in operation.

Walking from the morgue to our next stop on the tour, I noticed how some parts of the building were completely missing.

Every now and then, I came across windows that were shattered, walls that were missing, and ceilings that were collapsed. 

The hospital had 11 pavilions, which were large rooms that housed 20 patients with the same disease at the same time.

Early on, doctors and nurses in this hospital learned that putting a person with measles next to a person with tuberculosis would greatly decrease their chances of survival. So, they implemented a creative and successful pavilion-style layout that originated in Virginia during the Civil War. Each pavilion or ward was designated for a specific disease.

The picture above, for example, shows a measles ward.

The most important feature was the windows. Since there was no real treatment for some of the diseases at the time, the only thing nurses and doctors could do was open the windows and let in fresh air.

I realized each window cruelly looked out on the Statue of Liberty, almost teasing each patient. Lady Liberty was meant to be a beacon of hope and symbolize the start of a new life. For the people in this room, that new life was just out of reach. 

The tuberculosis ward, however, looked different because of the severity of the disease.

Tuberculosis affects the lungs and can be transferred through the air . Therefore, tuberculosis patients in the Contagious and Infectious Disease Hospital had to be quarantined into their own rooms. Each patient's room was off this long corridor. 

Each room in this ward was equipped with two sinks — a necessary feature to stop the spread of tuberculosis.

Patients had to spit up phlegm, blood, and mucus into the smaller sink so that it wouldn't contaminate the rest of the water supply, which was flushed into the river. The spit and other TB-contaminated products in this separate drainage would eventually be brought to a nearby powerhouse and incinerated.

In the entrance to each ward, nurses' stations are now covered in dust.

I saw dust covering the places where medicine, needles, and other supplies were once stored. 

Down the hall is the kitchen, which served 500 people each day.

In here, there were three types of meals prepared: a meal for patients with regular diets, a meal for patients with lighter diets, and a meal for nurses and staff. 

Today, the kitchen is mostly empty, except for a range hood that hangs from a dilapidated wall. 

The large, wooden refrigerator once held the hospital’s chilled foods.

Today, the fridge is covered in dust and completely empty.

Stepping out of the kitchen, I took one last look down the long hallway that seemed to stretch on endlessly.

The boarded-up windows, the ill-lit rooms, and the crumbling facade all made for a terrifying tour. But it wasn't over yet. 

Next door to the Contagious and Infectious Disease Hospital is the chief of medicine’s home.

The chief of medicine lived onsite with his wife and children. Other senior doctors lived in this home as well.

Upon entering the home, I was immediately greeted by a grand staircase that led to the second floor.

There are three bedrooms on the second floor, but it's not considered safe to climb the stairs today.

On the tour, I was told that children who lived in this house used to hide from doctors under the staircase.

Although the living room is now covered in dust, I could still see the home's former grandeur.

I was told this room was the best during Christmas, with stockings hanging from the fireplace and a tree standing in the corner. Now, it's completely abandoned.

The kitchen came equipped with a cupboard, a stove, and two sinks.

These days, the kitchen is dark with only a few beams of light seeping into the room. 

Back outside, I took one last look at the massive hospital complex and was reminded of all the people who'd once been there.

The hospital was later converted into a Coast Guard training center and played an important role in World War II. In 1954, Ellis Island and its two hospitals closed for good, but it still stands today as a monument to all the people who fought so hard to make it to America. 

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Ongoing Experiences

Behind the scenes tour of the abandoned ellis island hospital, the behind the scenes tour of the abandoned ellis island hospital is the perfect tour, if you’re the adventurous type, love exploring out of bound spots and also enjoys a bit of history and exciting stories.

Here is a small description on what to expect from this tour:

“ The abandoned Ellis Island Hospital complex—once the standard for United States medical care (and later transformed to the FBI headquarters when the island served as a detention center)—has been left to decay for nearly 60 years. 

Now, our amazing partners is bringing you behind-the-scenes for a unique exploration of the abandoned facility.

On this experience, you’ll visit the contagious disease wards and the autopsy rooms. And still, have exclusive access to places usually closed to the public.

While Ellis Island has become one of New York City’s top tourist attractions, drawing over two million visitors per year, the 22-building South Side hospital complex is hidden in plain sight. It’s just to the left of disembarking passengers headed towards the Great Hall…

Looking at its desolate, skeletal frame, it’s difficult to imagine the backstory as one of the largest public health undertakings in American history.

Join us for our upcoming hard hat tour, guided by a Save Ellis Island docent. We’ll uncover its many, buried secrets .”

OMG!!! So cool, right? Save Ellis Island has their own tour. But, this one has a few extra secrets, as we mentioned in the beginning. We do access some pretty sweet out of bound spots to the public!

This is one of the tours we love the most! But, then again, we are always psyched about exploring abandoned spots that have groundbreaking history!

You’ll learn the most curious facts and have opportunity to shoot several “Instagram worthy” pictures. They will leave your followers in “awe” and might even go viral!

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• Discover buildings over 100-years-old, which have not been occupied since 1954
• See an exhibition installed by the world-renowned artist JR, who has placed life-sized historic photographs of Ellis Island immigrants on interior walls of the hospital buildings
• Visit the Laundry Building, where 3000+ pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized daily
• Discover infectious and contagious disease wards, the kitchen, the autopsy room and other usually off-limits places

TOUR DETAILS: Price : $90 / person — Your ticket includes the price of the ferry to and from Ellis Island. Getting to the ferry:  After purchasing this experience, you will receive a separate email a week prior to your tour date, which will include your Ferry ticket. Print this ticket and show it to security to board the Ferry. To reach the site, visitors will have to board a Statue Cruises ferry, which takes off by Castle Clinton in Battery Park, lower Manhattan. The tickets can also be used interchangeably for departure at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. Please  REMAIN  on the boat past the Statue of Liberty to get to Ellis Island. Ticket Confirmation: After you book this experience, you will receive a confirmation email from our partner confirming you are attending the tour!

In order to be on Ellis Island by the beginning of the tour (2pm), we recommend following this schedule: – Start 11:30: Arrive to Castle Clinton ahead of time to allow time to clear the airport style security – Then 1:10pm:  Board the ferry at Castle Clinton (the ride is roughly 40-minutes) – Finally 1:50pm:  Arrive at Ellis Island and head to meeting location

What to wear:  Closed-toe-shoes are  mandatory . Please dress appropriately for the weather, as the buildings are not climate controlled. What to know: The tour is approximately 2 hours long. It will make scheduled stops for quick photographs, but tripods and uni-pods are not allowed. Due to the nature of the buildings, all guests must stay with the tour guide at all times. The tour is inaccessible for people using wheelchairs or powered scooters, and kids must be 10+ years-old to join. Tickets are not refundable however we can accommodate changes up to two weeks prior to the tour date.

Did you enjoy our Behind the Scenes Tour at the Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital? If you are looking for a behind the scenes tour for your team or clients, contact our experts to learn more about our Corporate Experiences .

You might also enjoy our “ Secret Behind The Scenes Grand Central Terminal Tour “!

Texts excerpts by our Partner! Photo Credit : The featured image is  Stephen Wilkes . He worked on a photo exhibition about the place, so locations visited may currently have a different layout. *Last Update on Feb/2020.*

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2 thoughts on “ behind the scenes tour of the abandoned ellis island hospital ”.

We will have the New York City Pass which includes the ferry to Ellis Island. How much will the Behind the scenes hospital tour cost if we are already on the island?

Many thanks

Hello Jackie! We sent you an email! Kindly, BTSNYC Team

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• Serious & Terminal Illness

What Happens When Someone Dies in a Hospital?

Updated 08/31/2022

Published 11/23/2020

Amanda Lambert, MS, CMC, ALCP

Certified Care Manager, Aging Life Care Professional, and National Master Guardian Emeritus

Cake values integrity and transparency. We follow a strict editorial process to provide you with the best content possible. We also may earn commission from purchases made through affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more in our affiliate disclosure .

Most people prefer to die at home, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Unless your loved one is on home hospice , a sudden accident or other illness could mean hospitalization. Even on hospice, there could be a short-term hospitalization to get your loved one’s pain under control, and they could die at the hospital even though that was not you or your loved one’s preference.  

Jump ahead to these sections:

What do hospitals do when someone dies, what are families or next of kin responsible for after a loved ones dies in a hospital, what happens when someone dies in a hospital without a next of kin, frequently asked questions: dying in a us hospital.

Your plan may have been to treat your loved one’s condition and bring them home to die, but they worsen and die in the hospital. This experience can be heartbreaking. In many cases due to the pandemic, families are not even allowed to visit someone in the hospital in some communities. You can request a video meeting or Facetime with your loved one so you can communicate, as well as ask to bring that person home.

When someone dies in the hospital, many of the details are handled by hospital staff. Upon admission to the hospital, you and your loved one will fill out a Medical Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) or a Physician’s Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form . These forms dictate your loved one’s wishes while they are in the hospital.

A couple of scenarios could occur. Depending on what the order indicates, the hospital staff will have tried to resuscitate and failed, or your loved one is allowed to die without intervention based on their wishes. 

If someone had advance directives that indicated full resuscitation, that directive would be superseded by a POLST or MOLST that states otherwise at the time of admission to the hospital. The reason for having this option is that sometimes circumstances change when someone is in the hospital, and their preferences may reflect a different set of wishes.

Next of kin is notified

Unless you are at the hospital when someone dies, the next of kin is notified. The next of kin is the person identified upon admission as the primary person responsible for the family member’s care. It could be the health care power of attorney or a family member who accompanies the person to the hospital.

Once the next of kin is notified, that person makes calls to the rest of the family to inform them of the death. The emotional responsibility of contacting other family members can also be intense. Delegate this task to someone else if you need to. You can take the time later to fill people in on details regarding any funeral arrangements and other details.

Declaration of death

In a hospital setting, the doctor that cared for your loved one or the one on call will have to certify the death.

This step is necessary to get death certificates later, which are required to settle the estate. In a hospital, this process is more straightforward than if your loved one died at home. 

Decide what to do with the body

If the family has not made mortuary arrangements, the hospital may move the body to the hospital morgue. The other deciding factor about how quickly the body is moved has to do with bed availability.

Many hospitals have bed shortages as a result of COVID-19, and there might be some urgency to free up that bed. Although the family may wish to spend time with the body, this may not be possible depending on the circumstances.

Assign a social worker

The hospital will assign a social worker to the family to assist with the process following death.

A social worker can help contact the mortuary, offer grief counseling, and other guidance related to the steps to take after death. Social workers also have resources available to help with planning once everyone has left the hospital.

Even though the hospital will handle many of the details immediately following a loved one’s death, the family still has decisions to make. Many of these decisions may have been made prior to death and are indicated in a living will or other advance directives . If those decisions were deferred, they will have to be made now. Pre-planning avoids having to make these decisions during times of stress.

Families often disagree about these responsibilities, and things can get complicated and contentious. While you may have an idea of what happens when you die , your family members may have additional questions, comments, and concerns of their own. Following a loved one’s death, family members might be very emotional, angry, or frustrated. Family conflict and disagreement are where the hospital social worker can help families try to do what is best. Reach out to the social worker to help resolve disputes if you are unable to make any headway.

Organ or body donation

Your loved one may have already decided that they were an organ donor before death, or perhaps wanted to donate their body to science . A social worker assigned by the hospital will talk with you about these options if they have not already been decided.

Organ and body donation decisions can be very emotional and disagreement among family members is common. That’s why it is best to make these wishes known as part of your pre-planning process.

Every state has different rules dictating when an autopsy must be performed. In general, autopsies are performed if there is a suspicion of foul play, an infectious disease concern, or unexplained death.

In a hospital setting, an autopsy is rare since the person was ill, to begin with. The family can request an autopsy if the state doesn’t require it. Sometimes people take comfort in knowing the exact cause of death. If your loved one had Alzheimer’s disease, they might have decided upon an autopsy to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease research.

The family or social worker can contact the Mortuary. If you have not selected one, you can just pick one and call. This scenario is more common than you may realize. Mortuaries prepare to deal with unexpected needs. Organize this information before calling:

• Will there be an earth burial or cremation? If the family has yet to decide on this, the mortuary can still take the body and hold it until a decision is made. For an earth burial, you will need to decide on a cemetery. 
• Will there be a funeral or graveside service? You do not need to decide about funeral arrangements right away.  It is just something to be thinking about as you move through the process. Due to COVID, more places are offering virtual funerals or memorial services. If the death was unexpected, a virtual service could be especially useful for out-of-town family members who may not be able to make last-minute arrangements. 
• Talk with your family about an obituary . 
• If there is immediate disagreement among family members about what direction to take, ask to speak with the hospital social worker who can help.

Think about your loved one’s home

Sometimes people go to the hospital quite suddenly and leave things unattended.

Once you have attended to the immediate aftermath of the death, think about your loved one’s home and what might need taking care of. Are there pets that need care? Delegate this task to another family member or friend until you can take over. Make sure the house is secure until such time you can deal with your loved one’s belongings and the house itself. 

Start planning to settle the estate

You will need to obtain certified death certificates through the mortuary or cremation service.  Not much can be accomplished without these certificates, and it is suggested that you request 10. You will need specific information for the death certificate, including their full legal name, date of birth, place of birth, father and mother’s name and birthplace, social security number, marital status, location, and cause of death (the hospital can provide this) and address. 

Death certificates aren’t issued to just anyone. Depending on the state where you live, they may only be given to immediate family or someone who can show they have a direct financial interest in the estate. You will need these certificates to contact all financial institutions, settle the will, and take care of any other obligations. 

Take care of yourself and your family

Losing someone takes an emotional toll, and grieving is a normal part of any loss. 

If you are the executor of your loved one’s estate, you will be very busy over the next few weeks. Make sure you take care of yourself and your family through this process. Rest, reach out to loved ones, and ask for help if you need it. 

Many people find it very helpful to reach out to grief counselors or their spiritual advisors during this time. Don’t hesitate to do so if you think it will help. Also, don’t forget your family. They are also bearing the brunt of this loss and your emotional response. Be mindful of their presence and needs as well.

Next of kin is a term most people may recognize as the closest living relative or relatives to the deceased. In the event of a person’s death, next of kin is also used to describe the person or people who stand to inherit the person’s estate.

Sometimes people die in the hospital, and there are no apparent next of kin available to take care of the body or make other arrangements. In some cases, sadly, people die without anyone to claim the body or take care of the property. The process from this point is dependent upon state law, but generally speaking, this is what can happen:

• If the hospital has advance directives that indicate preferences for burial, then those are provided to the coroner’s office. 
• If no friend or relative of the deceased can be immediately located, the body is moved to the office of the medical examiner or coroner’s office, where it is held for a specific length of time. 
• The coroner’s office makes attempts to locate next of kin. How long this takes is up to state regulations. It is possible that a distant relative can be found, but they also have the right not to claim the body.
• According to state laws, if no one comes forward to claim the body, the coroner's office must contact a funeral home to collect the body. If the person did not leave written burial preferences, then the body is most likely cremated.
• Finally, if the deceased person has no assets, the county or the state pays for cremation and burial. 

In the event that the person who has died in the hospital has an estate but no will, a probate court can handle the distribution of assets. Whenever someone with an estate dies without creating a will, this situation is defined as dying “intestate.” A court-appointed administrator compiles any assets of the deceased and distributes the remaining assets to those parties deemed as beneficiaries.

State law establishes next-of-kin relationships and inheritance. The legislature of a state has authority over the distribution of property within the state. The deceased's estate becomes state property if no legal heir is identified. Depending on state law, there is a priority of next-of-kin lineage all the way down to very distant relatives. But, if authorities can find no relatives, the estate goes to the state where the person died. 

Hospitals across the country have chaplains to provide spiritual comfort to people who are dying with no next of kin. Hospital staffers know when a dying person has no immediate next of kin to alert the chaplain program to attend to the dying person. 

Dying in the hospital or at home can get complicated just when the family is coping with the loss of a loved one. Hospitals, of course, are very accustomed to people dying and have processes in place to guide you through the necessary legal steps. Many of these steps follow state laws and specific hospital procedures.

Do you still have to pay for care if a loved one dies in the hospital?

Someone has to pay for care if a loved one dies in the hospital. All costs associated with the care of your loved one are still due. Who pays those bills depends on the estate, an existing executor, and if the family can afford to pay. If the person who died has an estate, then the estate is responsible for paying for care, and those costs are taken out before the distribution of money to the heirs.  

Suppose the person who died was a Medicaid recipient. In that case, federal law requires your state's Medicaid program to try to recover from the deceased person’s estate all the payments they made for related hospital costs. Medicaid won't hold the survivors responsible for the hospital costs, but they will try and recover any costs from the remaining estate.

How long will a hospital keep a body after someone dies?

A hospital will not keep a body long after someone dies. After 24 hours, the body starts to decompose and would require embalming for preservation. Hospitals do have morgues to keep the body for short periods. As the next of kin of a deceased person, you have the right to bring the body home.

Most hospitals need the bed space and will encourage the calling of a funeral home to collect the body as soon as possible. If the person died of an infectious disease, there is the possibility that state law will require immediate cremation. 

What documents will you need from the hospital after your loved one dies?

The hospital can handle the creation of the documents you need after your loved one dies, but it is good to know what those are so you can ensure completion of those documents. When your loved one dies, a physician fills out paperwork for pronouncement of death. This paperwork will vary from state to state and hospital to hospital but includes the time, place, and cause of death.

These details are necessary to obtain legal death certificates required to manage all financial aspects of the estate. The physician paperwork goes to the local authority to register the death. At this point, the local authority issues death certificates to the family or executor of the estate. 

It Is Difficult (But Manageable) When Someone Dies at the Hospital

When a loved one dies in the hospital, the experience is traumatic. The death may be expected or sudden, but in either case, rely on the hospital staff to help you.

Your task is to lessen the emotional burden of the loss and deal with the details of honoring your loved one’s wishes.

If you need help tying up loose ends after a loved one's death, read our guides on how to notify the IRS of a death and how to cancel credit cards after a death .

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• Death And Dying

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• The Morgue/Coroners Visit  – Participants are presented cases of risky behavior that resulted in deaths; take a tour of the area where bodies are stored, examined and processed. The result is that participants are confronted with the fatal consequences of risky choices and a visceral encounter that serves as a reality check.
• Reflective Component  – Allows the participants to evaluate their program experience, clarify lessons learned, and identify the healthier behaviors. This is accomplished by a written essay done individually.

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World News | Israeli strike kills at least 33 people at a…

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World News | Israeli strike kills at least 33 people at a Gaza school the military claims was being used by Hamas

Hospital morgue amends records to show the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men..

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said that Hamas was operating from within the school.

It was the latest instance of mass casualties among Palestinians trying to find refuge as Israel expands its offensive. A day earlier, the military announced a new ground and air assault in central Gaza, pursuing Hamas members it says have regrouped there.

Troops repeatedly have swept back into parts of the Gaza Strip they have previously invaded, underscoring the resilience of the group despite Israel’s nearly eight-month onslaught .

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Witnesses and hospital officials said the predawn strike hit the al-Sardi School, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees known by the acronym UNRWA. The school was filled with Palestinians who had fled Israeli operations and bombardment in northern Gaza, they said.

The hospital initially reported that nine women and 14 children were among those killed in the strike on the school. The hospital morgue later amended those records to show that the dead included three women, nine children and 21 men. It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy. An Associated Press reporter had counted the bodies but was unable to look beneath the shrouds.

Separate strikes in central Gaza killed another 15 people, nearly all men.

Ayman Rashed, a man displaced from Gaza City who was sheltering at the school, said the missiles hit classrooms on the second and third floor where families were sheltering. He said he helped carry out five dead, including an old man and two children, one with his head shattered open. “It was dark, with no electricity, and we struggled to get out the victims,” Rashed said.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the Israeli military, said it carried out a “precise strike” based on concrete intelligence that combatants were planning and conducting attacks from inside three classrooms. He said only those rooms were attacked.

“We conducted the strike once our intelligence and surveillance indicated that there were no women or children inside the Hamas compound, inside those classrooms,” he said.

Hagari said there were around 30 suspected fighters in the three rooms. He said the military had confirmed killing nine of them, and displayed a slide showing their names and photos. He provided no other evidence to substantiate the military’s claims.

Casualties from the strike arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, which had already been overwhelmed by a stream of constant ambulances since the central Gaza incursion began 24 hours earlier, said Omar al-Derawi, a photographer working for the hospital.

Videos circulating online appeared to show several wounded people being treated on the floor of the hospital, a common scene in Gaza’s overwhelmed medical wards. Electricity in much of the hospital is out because staff are rationing fuel supplies for the generator.

“You can’t walk in the hospital — there’s so many people. Women from the victims’ families are massed in the hallways, crying,” he said.

The school was in Nuseirat, one of several built-up refugee camps in Gaza dating to  the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation , when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became the new state.

Footage showed bodies wrapped in blankets or plastic bags being laid out in lines in the courtyard of the hospital. Mohammed al-Kareem, a displaced Palestinian sheltering near the hospital, said he saw people searching for their loved ones among bodies, and that one woman kept asking medical workers to open the wraps on the bodies to see if her son was inside.

“The situation is tragic,” he said.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, said in a post on X that 6,000 people were sheltering in the school when it was hit without prior warning. He said UNRWA was unable to verify claims that armed groups were inside.

UNRWA schools across Gaza have functioned as shelters since the start of the war, which has driven most of the territory’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes.

Last week, Israeli strikes hit near an UNRWA facility in the southern city of Rafah, saying they were targeting Hamas. An inferno ripped through tents nearby housing displaced families , killing at least 45 people . The deaths triggered international outrage, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fire was the result of a “tragic mishap.” The military said the fire may have been caused by secondary explosions. The cause of the explosions has not been determined.

Israel sent troops into Rafah  in early May in what it said was a limited incursion, but those forces are now operating in central parts of the city. More than 1 million people have fled Rafah since the start of the operation, scattering across southern and central Gaza into new tent camps or crowding into schools and homes.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which combatants killed some 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. Israel’s offensive has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry , which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its figures.

Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it positions fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers in residential areas.

The United States has thrown its weight behind  a phased cease-fire and hostage release outlined by President Joe Biden last week. But Israel says it won’t end the war without destroying Hamas, while the group is demanding a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government have threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs onto a cease-fire deal.

Israel has routinely launched airstrikes in all parts of Gaza since the start of the war and has carried out massive ground operations in the territory’s two largest cities, Gaza City and Khan Younis, that left much of them in ruins.

The military waged an offensive earlier this year for several weeks in Bureij and several other nearby refugee camps in central Gaza.

Troops pulled out of the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza last Friday after weeks of fighting caused widespread destruction. First responders have recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, killed during the battles.

Samy Magdy reported from Cairo.

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World News | Israel rescues 4 hostages kidnapped from the…

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World News | Israel rescues 4 hostages kidnapped from the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7

Israel’s army said it rescued Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in two locations in a complex daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat on Saturday morning, raiding the two places at once and under fire.

Argamani had been one of the most widely recognized hostages after being abducted from a music festival in southern Israel. The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, with Argamani detained between two men on a motorcycle as she screamed, “Don’t kill me!”

Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies.

An elated Argamani spoke by phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In an audio message released by the government, Netanyahu is heard asking how she’s feeling. She tells him she is “very excited,” saying she hasn’t heard Hebrew in so long.

The bodies of the dozens of Palestinians killed were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital, where they were counted by Associated Press reporters. They later saw more dead arrive at the hospital from the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah areas as smoke rose in the distance.

Israel’s military said it attacked “threats to our forces in the area.” The military said one fighter was seriously wounded.

Hamas took some 250 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. Israel says more than 130 hostages remain, with about a quarter of those believed dead. Divisions are deepening over the best way to bring them home.

International pressure mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday with more than 36,700 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Palestinians face widespread hunger because fighting and Israeli restrictions have largely cut off the flow of aid.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week, seeking a breakthrough in the apparently stalled cease-fire negotiations.

Saturday’s hostage recovery operation brings the total of rescued captives to seven. Two men were rescued in February when troops stormed a heavily guarded apartment, and a woman was rescued in the aftermath of the October attack. Israeli troops have recovered at least 16 bodies of hostages from Gaza, according to the government.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called Saturday’s rescue “a heroic operation” and said the army will fight until all hostages are returned.

Netanyahu faces growing pressure to end the fighting in Gaza. Many Israelis urge him to embrace a deal announced last month by U.S. President Joe Biden, but far-right allies threaten to collapse his government if he does.

Israel is intensifying operations across central Gaza, where the hostages were rescued. On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N.-run school compound in Nuseirat, killing over 33 people inside the school, including three women and nine children.

Israel said some 30 fighters were inside at the time and on Friday released the names of 17 fighters it said were killed. However, only nine of those names matched with records of the dead from the hospital morgue.

One of the alleged fighters was an 8-year-old boy, according to hospital records.

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.

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'Corpses everywhere': New video reveals pile of dead bodies in Russian hospital amid coronavirus

By compiled from wire services.

A video circulating on social media on Monday showing dozens of victims packed into a morgue in a hospital in Russia, reveals the lack of resources, violations of sanitary codes and inhumane treatment of patients battling the coronavirus.

A Russian health care worker recorded the scene from the corridor and dissection room of Novokuznetsk hospital in Siberia, where dozens of corpses lay on the floors – providing an inside look into Russian-state medical facilities.

"Corpses everywhere, corpses, corpses," the man commented as he walked through the hospital's corridor, disinfection station and shower room, revealing the filthy conditions.

The footage captured dozens of bodies in black bags littering the floor with at least one of the bodies simply covered with a blanket with the man's legs visible.

"We have a corridor, and it is full," the man said referring to the bodies of dozens of COVID-19 patients. "Corpses everywhere," he continued. "You can even stumble and fall. We literally walk over the heads of the dead."

The local authorities in the Kemerovo region verified the authenticity of the video released Monday, while the head of the local department of the ministry, Oleg Evsa, was fired shortly after the video went viral.

"Given the increase in the number of cases over the past three weeks, there is a rise in the number of deaths," the department said in a statement. "Due to a delay in the release of the bodies, about 50 bodies of the deceased were stored here," it added.

Russia's daily tally of new COVID-19 cases soared to a record high of 17,347 on Monday as the Kremlin warned the pandemic was beginning to inflict areas outside the capital Moscow on a greater scale.

Authorities say Russia has enough hospital beds and medication to tackle the second wave of COVID-19 but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said "extremely energetic" efforts from both federal and regional governments were now needed to cope with rising case numbers.

"The situation is quite serious," Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "The epidemic has stricken the regions, it has gone east of Moscow."

Russian media reports suggest some regions are struggling to withstand the pressure put on their health system.

In one indication of the crisis, Russia's health watchdog said it would launch an investigation following reports from local media outlet 161.ru in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don that several COVID-19 patients had died in the hospital as their oxygen supply ran out. A city official denied the report.

Moscow, a city of nearly 13 million, reported 5,224 new infections on Monday.

Authorities in the capital have opened temporary hospitals, ordered businesses to have at least 30% of staff working remotely and directed the city's sprawling metro system to turn away commuters with high body temperatures.

Russia in August became the first country to grant regulatory approval for a vaccine against COVID-19, doing so after less than two months of human testing, with large-scale trials underway. Regulators approved a second vaccine earlier this month.

In a televised meeting on Monday, parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told President Vladimir Putin that one in every five lawmakers in the 450-seat legislature currently has or has had COVID-19. He said that 38 lawmakers were currently hospitalized, one of whom was in intensive care.

With 1,531,224 infections, the massive country home to 145 million people has recorded the world's fourth-largest COVID-19 caseload – after the United States, India and Brazil.

Authorities said 219 people had died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 26,269.

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The Latest | Israel bombs another UN-run school in Gaza, a day after strike on school killed 33

Palestinians bring people killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip to a hospital in Deir al Balah on Friday, June 7, 2024. Credit: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana

An Israeli airstrike hit a U.N.-run school compound in northern Gaza on Friday, killing three people according to Palestinian emergency officials, a day after a similar strike on a school in Gaza's center killed at least 33 people. In both airstrikes, the Israeli army said Hamas militants were operating from within the schools. The Associated Press could not verify the claims.

Israel on Friday released the names of 17 militants it said were killed in Thursday’s strike. However, only nine of those names matched with records of the dead from the hospital morgue. One of the alleged militants was an 8-year-old boy, according to hospital records.

International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which completed its eighth month on Friday. Seeking a breakthrough in the apparently stalled cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week.

And at the United Nations, Israel and Hamas are both set to be listed as violating the rights and protection of children in armed conflict, in an upcoming annual report to the Security Council. Israel reacted with public outrage after being informed Friday about the designation.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 36,730 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Palestinians are facing widespread hunger because the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies. U.N. agencies say over 1 million in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.

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Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Around 80 hostages captured on Oct. 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others.

Palestinians look at the aftermath of the Israeli strike on a U.N.-run school that killed dozens of people in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 6, 2024. Credit: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana

— Women and children of Gaza are killed less frequently as war’s toll rises, AP data analysis finds

— Takeaways from AP analysis of Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll data.

— Baghdad rattled by attacks on businesses linked to U.S. brands as anger over the war in Gaza rises.

— Yemen’s Houthi rebels detain at least nine U.N. staffers and others in a sudden crackdown, officials say

Palestinians check the bodies of their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment of UNRWA school at Nusseirat refugee camp, in front of the morgue of al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, early Thursday, June 6, 2024. Credit: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana

— One image, seen by millions: A social media effort to draw attention to Rafah surges.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here's the latest:

ISRAEL LISTS NAMES OF 17 ALLEGED MILITANTS KILLED IN GAZA SCHOOL STRIKE, BUT MANY DON'T MATCH HOSPITAL'S LIST OF DEAD

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Friday an additional eight militants were among those killed in a strike on a U.N.-run school in central Gaza, raising the number of alleged militants to 17.

The army released the names of the militants it said were killed in Thursday's strike. However, only nine of those names matched with records of the dead from the hospital morgue.

One of the names Israel listed as a militant was an 8-year-old boy, Shaheen Mahmoud Ibrahim Abu Sharif, according to the hospital records. Two boys on the morgue’s list, age 10 and 14, had names that suggested they were sons of a man Israel identified as a slain militant, although he was not listed among the hospital's dead.

The AP could not independently confirm whether any names on the Israeli list were militants.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy Friday evening.

The strike in Nuseirat refugee camp on Thursday killed over 33 people inside the school, including three women and nine children, according to reports at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Israel said Thursday that some 30 militants were inside the school at the time. The military said it was unaware of any civilian casualties.

Some 6,000 people were sheltering in the school when it was hit, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees.

U.N. WILL LIST ISRAEL AND HAMAS AS VIOLATING CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN ARMED CONFLICT

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. secretary-general will list Israel and Hamas as violating the rights and protection of children in armed conflict in an upcoming annual report to the Security Council.

According to the preface of last year’s report, listed parties engaged in “the killing and maiming of children” and in “attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons in relation to schools and/or hospitals.”

The head of Secretary-General António Guterres’ office, Courtenay Rattray, called Israel’s U.N. Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be listed on the next report when it is sent to the council within a few weeks, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad is also are being listed.

Israel reacted with outrage, sending news organizations a video of Erdan berating Rattray, supposedly on the other end of a phone call.

BLINKEN TO VISIT MIDEAST AND PUSH FOR CEASE-FIRE PROPOSAL IN EIGHTH MIDEAST TRIP DURING GAZA WAR

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East on his eighth diplomatic mission to the region since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October.

The State Department says Blinken, who is currently in France accompanying President Joe Biden on a state visit, will fly from Paris to Cairo on Monday before traveling to Israel, Jordan and Qatar. Blinken will then go to Italy to join Biden at a G7 summit.

The lightning tour comes as the Biden administration is pushing hard for Hamas to accept a three-phase cease-fire proposal that would see the release of hostages held by the group and potentially pave the way for an end to the conflict and the reconstruction of Gaza.

However, Blinken may have trouble selling the proposal — or at least its implementation — to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative, some members of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government are strongly opposed to it. And Netanyahu himself has expressed skepticism, saying what has been presented publicly is not accurate and rejecting calls for Israel to cease all fighting until Hamas is eradicated.

Hamas has said it viewed the offer “positively” and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to an agreement that includes a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a prisoner exchange and other conditions.

Biden, Blinken and other U.S. officials have also lobbied Arab nations to use what influence they have with Hamas to get the Palestinian militant group to accept the deal. So far, there has been no definitive response since Biden announced the deal last week.

ISRAEL STRIKES A U.N. SCHOOL IN NORTHERN GAZA. PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS SAY 3 PEOPLE KILLED

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it struck a Hamas position inside a U.N.-run school in northern Gaza. Palestinian emergency officials said three people were killed.

The attack Friday came a day after an Israeli strike on a U.N. school in central Gaza killed at least 33 people, including 12 women and children, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said in that case as well that Hamas militants were operating from within the school.

Friday’s airstrike targeted the Asmaa School in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, a facility run by the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA.

The Israeli military said it hit a shipping container on the grounds of the school that Hamas was using as a meeting point to plan attacks. It said one militant was killed. Israel's claims could not be independently confirmed.

The Palestinian Civil Defense said three people were killed in the strike, without giving details on their identities.

Later, the Israeli military refused to say whether the strike caused civilian casualties.

More than 180 United Nations facilities have been damaged during Israel’s campaign of bombardment and ground offensives across Gaza, according to UNRWA. Most of them have been schools, which have turned into shelters for tens of thousands of people fleeing the violence. Israel accuses Hamas of using schools and other civilian infrastructure to position its fighters, weapons and command posts.

As the war completed its eighth month on Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israel’s campaign has killed more than 36,730 people. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The Israeli army says it follows international law and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants operate among the population. The Geneva Conventions say civilians must not be targeted deliberately or indiscriminately, and military operations must be proportionate.

AMERICAN-BUILT PIER IN GAZA IS RECONNECTED TO BEACH AND AID WILL FLOW SOON, U.S. MILITARY SAYS

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military-built pier designed to carry badly needed aid into Gaza by boat has been reconnected to the beach after a section broke apart in storms and rough seas, U.S. Central Command announced Friday, saying food and other supplies will begin to flow soon.

The section that connects to the beach in Gaza, the causeway, was rebuilt nearly two weeks after heavy storms damaged it and abruptly halted what had already been a troubled delivery route.

Central Command Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said operations at the reconnected pier will be ramped up soon with a goal to get a million pounds of food and other supplies moving through the pier into Gaza every two days.

The pier was only operational for a week before a storm broke it apart, and had initially struggled to reach delivery goals.

The maritime route for a limited time had been an additional way to help get more aid into Gaza because the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get anything through land routes that are far more productive. Israel’s Rafah invasion and strikes in northern Gaza had also temporarily halted U.S. airdrops of food.

Cooper said Friday the U.S. also expects to resume those airdrops in the coming days.

ISRAELI SETTLERS SET FIRE TO PALESTINIAN VILLAGE IN WEST BANK AND SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE WOUNDED, OFFICIALS SAY

RAMALLAH — Several people were wounded when settlers set fire to a northern West Bank village, a local official said Friday.

Hani Odeh, head of Qusra’s municipality council, told The Associated Press that settlers set fire in the area Thursday night, attacking houses, burning warehouses and destroying trees.

Videos seen by the AP show several fires blazing with plumes of smoke in the air. Three people were injured, one by live ammunition and the others by live bullets, said Odeh.

The army told the AP that Israeli civilians lit Palestinian property on fire Thursday evening. It said there was a violent confrontation between Israeli civilians and Palestinians with mutual rock throwing and the army dispersed them by firing shots in the air.

Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged throughout the war in Gaza. Israel has been conducting raids into Palestinian cities and towns in the territory to crack down on militancy and the incursions have led to the deaths of around 530 Palestinians. Most of those killed have been in clashes with the military. But people throwing stones as well as others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

Palestinian attacks against Israelis have also been on the rise in the territory.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, while the more than 500,000 Jewish settlers in the territory have Israeli citizenship.

GAZA HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY AT LEAST 18 KILLED IN OVERNIGHT ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — Palestinian health officials say at least 18 people were killed, including children, in Israeli airstrikes overnight across Central Gaza.

Strikes hit the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps and Deir al-Balah and Zawaiyda towns, they said Friday. The bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where they were tallied by an Associated Press journalist.

Four children and one woman were among those killed as well as the mayor of the Nuseirat municipality, according to hospital records.

Israel’s army said Friday it was still carrying out operations in parts of Central Gaza including eastern Bureji and Deir al-Balah. It said its troops had killed dozens of militants, located tunnel shafts and destroyed infrastructure in the area.

The strikes come a day after an Israeli strike killed at least 33 people at a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced Palestinian families. Israel said the school was being used as a Hamas compound, without providing evidence.

Israel’s military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties in the strike on the school in Nuseirat refugee camp, and later said it had confirmed killing nine militants.

UNEMPLOYMENT IN GAZA REACHES NEARLY 80%, U.N. REPORT SAYS

JERUSALEM — Unemployment in Gaza has reached nearly 80% since the war erupted eight months ago, a new United Nations report said Friday.

The United Nations International Labour Organization and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said the war has plunged Gaza as well as the West Bank into economic crisis. In Gaza, virtually the entire private sector ground to a halt or significantly reduced, losing more than 85% of its production value -- the equivalent of more than $810 million-- during the first half of the war, said the report.

In the West Bank, unemployment reached 32% bringing the average rate across both areas to more than 50%. The findings don’t include people who left the workforce because they couldn’t find jobs.

This is the fourth report since the war began on Oct 7. when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel killing some 1,200 people.

A separate report last month by the UN said the unprecedented destruction from the war in Gaza would take at least until 2040 to restore

CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP URGES U.S. TO STOP SENDING WEAPONS FOR USE IN GAZA

The U.S. civil rights group NAACP has called on the Biden administration to end the shipment of weapons to Israel for use in attacks on Gaza.

It said Thursday that President Joe Biden’s three-stage proposal for a cease-fire and the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas does not go far enough.

“Over the past months, we have been forced to bear witness to unspeakable violence, affecting innocent civilians, which is unacceptable,” President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “It is one thing to call for a cease-fire, it is another to take the measures necessary to work towards liberation for all.”

The group also urged an end of artillery shipments to states that supply weapons to Hamas.

The NAACP appears to be the first legacy U.S. civil rights organization to call for a cease-fire. However, racial justice activists and the Black Lives Matter movement have been calling for a cease-fire since shortly after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Militants killed about 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage in the attack.

Since Israel’s offensive in response to that attack, over 36,000 Palestinians have died according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

U.S. IS CIRCULATING A GAZA CEASE-FIRE RESOLUTION AT THE U.N., BUT ISRAEL PRIVATELY OBJECTS

UNITED NATIONS — The United States has circulated a revised Security Council draft resolution that says a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza must be agreed to by Israel and Hamas.

It also spells out a three-phase plan to end the eight-month war and start the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip that it says Israel has accepted and calls on Hamas to accept.

In exchange for the agreement by both parties to a permanent cease-fire, the plan says all Israeli hostages in Gaza will be released and all Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza.

But Israel is privately objecting to its close ally’s latest attempt to stop the war.

An Israeli official told The Associated Press that the language overlooks Israel’s stated aim of destroying Hamas as a military force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussion.

Because Israel believes that Hamas will engage in future military attacks, it is wary of signing a document that specifically stipulates a cease-fire, the official said. That language has a more permanent implication than a “cessation of hostilities,” which has also been mentioned in draft discussions.

Israel also objects to proposed language that “rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip.”

That includes “actions that reduce the territory of Gaza, such as through the permanent establishment officially or unofficially of so-called buffer zones,” which Israel has already said it plans.

Far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have threatened to bring down the coalition if he signs onto a cease-fire deal.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators have told top Biden administration officials in the Middle East that they expect Hamas will submit its formal response to the latest hostage and cease-fire offer in the coming days, according to a U.S. official.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said ongoing talks in Doha and Cairo have been constructive, but that Hamas has still not delivered its formal response to the three-phase deal that President Joe Biden outlined last week.

Hamas has said it viewed the offer “positively” and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to the agreement.

More than a dozen countries joined the U.S. in a statement Thursday to show support for the proposed deal.

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Israel rescues 4 hostages taken in hamas’ oct. 7 attack. at least 94 palestinians are killed.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel on Saturday carried out its largest hostage rescue operation since the war with Hamas began, taking four to safety out of central Gaza as heavy fighting continued there. At least 94 dead Palestinians, including children, were brought to local hospitals, a health official said.

Israelis were jubilant as the army said it rescued Noa Argamani, 25; Almog Meir Jan, 21; Andrey Kozlov, 27; and Shlomi Ziv, 40, in a daytime operation in the heart of Nuseirat, raiding two locations at once and under fire. All were well, the military said. They were taken by helicopter for medical checks and reunions with loved ones after 246 days held.

Argamani had been one of the most widely recognized hostages after being taken, like the three others, from a music festival . The video of her abduction was among the first to surface, with her between two men on a motorcycle as she screamed, “Don’t kill me!”

Her mother, Liora, has stage four brain cancer and in April released a video pleading to see her daughter before she dies.

An elated Argamani spoke by phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a video message released by the government, she tells him she is “very excited,” saying she hasn’t heard Hebrew in so long.

Netanyahu in a statement said “Israel does not surrender to terrorism and acts with creativity and boldness that knows no bounds to bring home our abductees.” He vowed to continue the fighting until all are freed.

The operation was “daring in nature, planned brilliantly, and executed in an extraordinary fashion,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.

The bodies of nearly 100 Palestinians killed were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital, where spokesperson Khalil Degran told The Associated Press more than 100 wounded also arrived. AP reporters saw dozens of bodies brought from the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah areas, as smoke rose in the distance and armored vehicles rolled by.

A baby was among the dead. Small children wailed, covered in blood. Bodies were placed on the ground outside, their feet bare, as more wounded were rushed in.

“My two cousins were killed, and two other cousins were seriously injured. They did not commit any sin. They were sitting at home,” one relative said in the chaos.

Israel’s military said it had attacked “threats to our forces in the area.” The military said one commando died from his wounds.

A U.S. hostage cell provided advice and support throughout the process of locating and rescuing the hostages, according to a Biden administration official. The official, who was not authorized to comment and requested anonymity, declined to offer further detail on the American involvement. The hostage cells are multi-agency teams.

“We won’t stop working until all the hostages come home and a cease-fire is reached,” U.S. President Joe Biden said.

Hamas took some 250 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 120 hostages remain, with 43 pronounced dead. Survivors include about 15 women, two children under the age of 5 and two men in their 80s.

Saturday’s hostage recovery operation brings the total of rescued captives to seven. Two men were rescued in February and a woman was rescued in the aftermath of the October attack. Israeli troops have recovered at least 16 bodies of hostages, according to the government.

The latest rescue was expected to lift spirits in Israel at a time when the war is dragging on and divisions are deepening over the best way to bring hostages home.

It was unclear what effect it might have on apparently stalled cease-fire efforts . U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East next week, seeking a breakthrough.

“The hostage release and cease-fire deal that is now on the table would secure the release of all the remaining hostages together with security assurances for Israel and relief for the innocent civilians in Gaza,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

Netanyahu faces growing pressure to end the fighting in Gaza. Many Israelis urge him to embrace a deal Biden announced last month, but far-right allies threaten to collapse his government if he does.

International pressure also mounts on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war in Gaza, which reached its eighth month on Friday with more than 36,700 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry , which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Palestinians face widespread hunger because fighting and Israeli restrictions have largely cut off the flow of aid .

Israel is intensifying operations across central Gaza, where the hostages were rescued. On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N.-run school compound in Nuseirat, killing over 33 people inside the school, including three women and nine children.

Israel said some 30 militants were inside at the time and on Friday released the names of 17 militants it said were killed. However, only nine of those names matched with records of the dead from the hospital morgue.

One of the alleged militants was an 8-year-old boy, according to hospital records.

Israel’s military on Saturday asserted that “Hamas is a terror organization that often uses fake documents disguising terrorists as women or children.”

Mednick and Jeffrey reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin ‘invokes Cuban Missile Crisis’ as he moves ‘nuclear-capable’ ships to Havana

LIVE – Updated at 16:00

Vladimir Putin is invoking the memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis by moving “nuclear-capable” warships to Cuba in a move intended to provoke the United States , a think tank warned.

Four Russian vessels will make a port call to Havana between 12 and 17 June before stopping off in Venezuela later in the month, according to Cuban and US officials.

The Admiral Gorshkov frigate, the Kazan nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine , the Academic Pashin replenishment oiler, and the Nikolai Chiker rescue tug will all be part of the visit, the US-based think tank Institute for the Study of War.

The Admiral Gorshkov is capable of carrying Zircon hypersonic missiles, which the Kremlin has touted as being able to carry a nuclear warhead. There is no suggestion the ship will be equipped with nuclear weapons during the visit.

In 1962, former Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev moved nuclear missiles to Havana which led to an intense stand off between Moscow and Washington.

Meanwhile, Putin has threatened to retaliate against Western countries that are allowing Ukraine to hit Russia with their long-range missiles.

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Ukraine air defence downs 9 out of 13 Russian drones over four regions

Ukrainian air defence and mobile drone hunters groups shot down nine out of 13 Russian drones over four regions of the country, the air force said today.

The Iranian-made Shahed drones were downed over the central Poltava region, southeastern Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, and the Kharkiv region in the northeast, the statement said. One X-59 Russian missile launched from Russia’s Kursk region was also downed.

Serhiy Lysak, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor, said the overnight drone attack damaged commercial and residential buildings and also a power line.

Details of the damage in other regions were not immediately clear.

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Ukrainian air defence and mobile drone hunters groups shot down nine out of 13 Russian drones over four regions of the country, the air force said on Saturday.

Serhiy Lysak, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor, said the overnight drone attack damaged commercial and residential buildings and also a power line. Details of the damage in other regions were not immediately clear.

Putin says Russia does not need to use nuclear weapons for victory in Ukraine

Russian president Vladimir Putin said there was no need to use nuclear weapons to deliver victory for Moscow in Ukraine, the strongest signal yet from the Kremlin chief that there will not be a nuclear strike.

Mr Putin, whose forces have been making advances in eastern Ukraine in recent months, said he did not see the conditions for the use of such weapons and requested that people stop discussing the nuclear topic.

However, Mr Putin, who leads the world’s biggest nuclear power, said he did not rule out changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which sets out the conditions under which such weapons could be used.

He also said that if necessary Russia could test a nuclear weapon, though he saw no need to do so at the present time.

Mr Putin’s response came to a question from Sergei Karaganov, an influential Russian analyst, who asked if Mr Putin should hold a “nuclear pistol to the temple” of the West over Ukraine.

“The use is possible in an exceptional case - in the event of a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. I don’t think that such a case has come. There is no such need,” he said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“But this doctrine is a living tool and we are carefully watching what is happening in the world around us and do not exclude making some changes to this doctrine. This is also related to the testing of nuclear weapons.”

Biden, Macron get ready for pomp-filled state visit to discuss Ukraine and Israel

French president Emmanuel Macron will host US president Joe Biden today for a state visit marked by pomp and a parade as well as talks on trade, Israel and Ukraine.

The two men, who share a warm relationship despite past tensions over a submarine deal with Australia, will participate in a welcoming ceremony with their wives at the iconic Arc de Triomphe and a parade down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees before holding a meeting about policy issues and then attending dinner.

Jake Sullivan said talks between the two men would touch on Russia’s war with Ukraine, Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, and policy issues ranging from climate change to artificial intelligence to supply chains.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said the countries would announce a plan to work together on maritime law enforcement and the US Coast Guard and French navy would discuss increased cooperation.

Mr Biden and Mr Macron are also expected to discuss strengthening Nato, and both have pledged their countries’ support for Ukraine, though they have not agreed yet on a plan to use frozen Russian assets to help Kyiv. A US Treasury official said on Tuesday the United States and its G7 partners were making progress on that.

UN says Ukraine’s monthly civilian death toll rises to highest in a year

Ukraine marked a significant increase in monthly civilian casualties in May, reaching the highest point in nearly a year, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said today.

It said conflict-related violence killed at least 174 civilians and injured 690 in Ukraine in May, the highest number of civilian casualties since June 2023.

It noted that the main reason for the high number of civilian casualties was the use of air-dropped bombs and missiles in populated areas such as communities near the frontline and Kharkiv city.

“Over half of the casualties in May occurred in Kharkiv city and region where Russian armed forces launched a new ground offensive on May 10,” Danielle Bell, the head of HRMMU, said.

Ms Bell said that the attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, have been deadly and no place in Ukraine was safe.

“The attacks on a shopping center and printing house in Kharkiv city highlight the stark vulnerability of civilians engaged in everyday activities, where even routine tasks like buying supplies to repair damaged homes can result in the loss of life and loved ones,” said Ms Bell.

US could deploy more nuclear weapons on its border to deter adversaries, Biden aide says

The US may have to deploy more strategic nuclear weapons in coming years against growing threats from Russia, China and other adversaries, a senior White House aide said yesterday.

Pranay Vaddi, the top National Security Council arms control official, made his comments in a speech on “a more competitive approach” to arms control that outlined a policy shift aimed at pressing Moscow and Beijing to reverse rejections of US calls for arsenal limitation talks.

“Absent a change in adversary arsenals, we may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required. We need to be fully prepared to execute if the president makes that decision,” he told the Arms Control Association.

“If that day comes, it will result in a determination that more nuclear weapons are required to deter our adversaries and protect the American people and our allies and partners.”

The US currently adheres to a limit of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads under the New START treaty with Russia even though Moscow suspended it last year.

The administration remains committed to international arms control and non-proliferation regimes designed to curb the spread of nuclear weapons, Mr Vaddi said.

But, he said, Russia, China and North Korea “are all expanding and diversifying their nuclear arsenals at a breakneck pace, showing little or no interest in arms control.”

The three and Iran “are increasingly cooperating and coordinating with each other in ways that run counter to peace and stability, threaten the United States, our allies and our partners and exacerbate region tensions,” he said.

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are sharing advanced missile and drone technology, said Mr Vaddi, citing Moscow’s use in Ukraine of Iranian drones and North Korean artillery and missiles, and Chinese support for Russia’s defense industries.

Biden promises new $225m aide to Zelensky in Paris talks

US president Joe Biden announced a fresh $225m aid to Ukraine on the sidelines of his meeting with president Volodymyr Zelensky for D-Day events.

Mr Biden apologised to Mr Zelensky in what was their first first face-to-face encounter since the Ukrainian president visited Washington in December, when the two pressed Republicans to overcome opposition in their party to more support for Ukraine.

“You haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is ... just remarkable,” Mr Biden told the Ukrainian leader at the start of their meeting on Friday. “We’re not going to walk away from you.”

He confirmed he was signing an additional tranche of $225m on Friday to help Ukraine reconstruct its electric grid.

“We’re still in, completely, totally,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Zelensky thanked Biden for US military, financial and humanitarian support.

“It’s very important that you stay with us. This bipartisan support with the Congress, it’s very important that in this unity, United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine, like it was during World War Two, how United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe,” he said in English.

Zelensky hits out at Putin’s claims about Ukraine’s presidential legitimacy

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has hit back at Vladimir Putin for raising questions over the legitimacy of his presidency in the absence of elections in the war-torn country.

In a joint news conference with France’s President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Mr Zelensky said: “President Zelensky’s legitimacy is recognized by the people of Ukraine only, he is elected by the people of Ukraine.”

“I am very grateful for the support. Our people are free. To be honest, that’s what we are fighting for (freedom). I am grateful for the support,” he said.

He added said Mr Putin’s legitimacy is recognized only by the Russian president himself.

“Putin elects himself. Russian people are just a decoration, they only have one actor,” Mr Zelensky said, pointing to Russia’s presidential election,

Ukraine had to undergo elections in March 2024 after Mr Zelensky’s first term ended in May. However, martial law was imposed following the Ukraine war in February 2022, banning elections during wartime.

British foreign secretary falls victim to hoax video call and messages

Foreign secretary Lord David Cameron has been the victim of hoax a video call and messages from someone claiming to be the former president of Ukraine , it has been revealed.

In order to stave off any attempts to manipulate video footage of Lord Cameron from the communications, the government has made public what happened.

A statement from the Foreign Office said a “number of text messages were exchanged followed by a brief video call between the Foreign Secretary and someone purporting to be Petro Poroshenko , former president of Ukraine”.

Mr Poroshenko served as Ukrainian president between 2014 and 2019, and has remained a prominent figure in the country since leaving office.

Lord Cameron falls victim to hoax video call and messages

Russia-installed governor says 22 killed in Ukrainian shelling

The Russia-installed governor of Ukraine‘s southern region of Kherson accused Ukrainian forces of killing 22 people and wounding 15 in the shelling of the small town of Sadove.

Governor Vladimir Saldo said Ukrainian forces had deliberately struck the area a second time today, using a US-supplied HIMARS missile to inflict the largest possible number of casualties.

Leonid Pasechnik, another Russia-installed governor in Luhansk, an occupied region northeastern Ukraine, said a Ukrainian strike had killed three people and wounded 35.

Russian Defence Ministry said Ukrainian forces had used US-supplied ATACMS missiles in the attack on the city of Luhansk.

There was no comment from Ukraine on either incident.

Putin claims Russia may supply long-range weapons to enemies of West in retaliation for Ukraine support

Putin claims Russia could supply long-range weapons to West’s enemies

Graffiti with images and messages referencing Ukraine appear on Paris buildings near Parliament

Unusual spray-painted images and messages with references to Ukraine appeared on the streets of Paris on Friday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US president Joe Biden in the French capital.

It was unclear who sprayed the graffiti that has appeared on several buildings in central Paris near the Parliament complex and various government ministries.

Some depicted coffins with stenciled signs in French that say “A French soldier in Ukraine.” Others include a sign that says in Ukrainian “Return the elections back to Ukrainians.”

Speaking in Normandy at the commemoration of 80th anniversary of D-Day, Joe Biden declared that the US and the West is committed to unwavering support for Ukraine against Russian aggression, and robust resistance to Vladimir Putin “a tyrant bent on domination”.

The US president went on to meet Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris to assure him that $225 million (£176m) in weapons supply is on its way.

It was their first meeting since December when the Ukrainian leader visited Washington during a Congressional impasse over a $60 billion arms package for Kyiv.

The bill in Congress, held up at the time by Republican opposition, has been passed, easing trepidation that Ukraine would face defeat this year without that lifeline.

Importantly, the Biden administration, after prolonged hesitation, has belatedly allowed Ukraine to use American weapons, chiefly ATACAMs missiles, to strike targets inside Russia -- as long as its not in Moscow and the Kremlin.

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Putin’s forces killed his brother. He takes revenge using hundreds of suicide drones to blow Russian troops up

The Ukraine politician avenging his brother’s death with hi-tech ‘suicide drones’

Why African nations are turning to Russia

Russia‘s top diplomat pledged help and military assistance while on a whirlwind tour of several countries in Africa‘s sub-Saharan region of Sahel this week, as Moscow seeks to grow its influence in the restive, mineral-rich section of the continent.

Russia is emerging as the security partner of choice for a growing number of African governments in the region, displacing traditional allies like France and the United States.

Sergey Lavrov, who has made several trips to Africa in recent years, this week stopped in Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Chad.

‘There is more to do’ to avoid repeat of Second World War, warns army chief

There is “every possibility” that a conflict on the scale of the Second World War could embroil Europe in the coming years, the outgoing head of the British army has claimed.

General Sir Patrick Sanders, 58, who will step down in the coming days after two years in post, issued the comments in Portsmouth at an event to commemorate the D-Day operation of 6 June 1944.

Having recently returned from a visit to British troops in Poland, Gen Sanders heralded the progression of the British army but added that there was “more to do” and urged the military to ramp up its readiness for war.

‘There is more to do’ to avoid repeat of WWII, warns army chief

At D-Day ceremony, American veteran hugs Ukraine's Zelenskyy and calls him a savior

An American veteran and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared an emotional moment at a ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion to liberate France in World War II, each praising the other as a hero.

Retired Staff Sgt. Melvin Hurwitz, 99, and other veterans were introduced to the foreign dignitaries remembering the landings in Normandy on Thursday.

When he met Zelenskyy, Hurwitz kissed the Ukrainian leader’s hand and pulled him in for an extended hug, exclaiming: “Oh, you’re the savior of the people!”

Inside the escape from a Ukraine border village as Putin’s forces closed in: ‘Mummy, when will this war end?’

Nine-year-old Sasha rushed down to the basement as Russian-launched drones buzzed in the sky above him. He was terrified, shivering as he desperately tried to block out the noise of the “Shaheds”, the Iranian-designed drones that have become a deadly feature of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

The boy was living with his mother and five siblings in the village of Zakharivka, just a few miles from the Russian forces advancing across the border into Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. The region has been the scene of intense fighting for weeks.

This was five days after the Russian attack had started in the middle of May. Poor defensive fortifications and severed communication lines, the result of Russian signal jammers, had caught Ukraine’s forces off guard. Moscow’s troops had then pushed rapidly across the border.

Inside the escape from a Ukraine border village as Putin’s forces closed in

Biden announces $225m arms package for Ukraine as he meets with Zelensky in France

The US will soon dispatch an arms and aid package to Ukraine amounting to $225million as Kyiv works to repel renewed Russian attacks, President Joe Biden said on Friday.

Biden announced the new tranche of defense assistance in Paris during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, a day after the Ukrainian president joined the US president and other world leaders for ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

In remarks at the American cemetery in Normandy during the ceremony, Biden had described Ukraine’s fight against Russia as a modern-day analog of the war against Hitler and Nazism while stressing the importance of beating back isolationist sentiment, providing an implicit contrast with his predecessor and likely 2024 election opponent, former president Donald Trump.

Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa tells Putin that Russia is a reliable ally

Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa said Russia was a consistent ally of his country, and criticised the West for imposing a global order which he said had marginalised the Global South.

Mnangagwa was speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on a stage with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Mr Mnangagwa called “my dear brother”.

Watch: Zelensky's heartbreaking exchange with D-Day veteran

Ukraine has right to strike 'legitimate targets in russia', nato chief says.

Ukraine has the right to attack legitimate military targets in Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

“Ukraine has the right to self defence,” Mr Stoltenberg said during a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at a military base near Stockholm.

He added: “The right to self defence also includes the right to hit legitimate, military targets on the territory of the attacking party, the aggressor - in this case Russia.”

EU 'supports starting accession talks', Ukrainian PM says

The European Commission supports starting EU accession talks with Ukraine, the country’s prime minister has said.

Denys Shmyhal said the commission had confirmed in a report that Kyiv had fulfilled the remaining steps required to start negotiations.

“Now we expect our European partners to take the next step - to start negotiations on European Union membership this month,” Mr Shmyhal said on Telegram.

Germany needs 75,000 extra troops as NATO braces for Russia threat

Germany will need at least 75,000 additional troops to fulfil its Nato commitments as the alliance adapts its defence planning to face what it sees as an increasingly hostile Russia, Spiegel magazine reported on Friday.

At their Vilnius summit last year, Nato leaders signed off on the first major defence plans since the end of the Cold War, detailing how the alliance would respond to a Russian attack.

The move signified a fundamental shift - Nato had seen no need to draw up such plans for decades, as it fought smaller wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and felt certain post-Soviet Russia no longer posed an existential threat.

Nato and national military planners have been busy translating the plans into concrete requirements, identifying shortages of troops, weapons and other equipment needed to defend against a Russian attack that could, according to the German military’s top brass, come as early as 2029.

US president Joe Biden has apologised for a month-long delay in approving weapons for Ukraine and told Zelensky “we’re still in.”

Speaking in Paris, where they both attended ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Biden apologized to the Ukrainian people for the weeks of not knowing if more assistance would come while conservative Republicans in Congress held up a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine for six months.

Still, the Democratic president insisted that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. “We’re still in. Completely. Thoroughly,” he said.

Trump claims nuclear war is a greater threat to the world than climate crisis

Donald Trump has downplayed the threat of the climate crisis in his latest interview with Fox News, insisting that international unrestand the danger of nuclear war are of far greater concern, declaring: “The only global warming that matters to me is nuclear global warming.”

The Republican presidential candidate and convicted felon sat down with the conservative network’s anchor Sean Hannity to lambast Joe Biden for emphasising environmentalism over the threat of nuclear war.

“I love this country. I don’t want to see this country get into a nuclear war and be so badly damaged. What we say won’t matter. This won’t matter.

This place won’t matter, nothing will matter because practically nothing is going to be here anymore,” Trump told Hannity, outlining his nightmarish vision of man-made apocalypse.

French citizen arrested in Moscow on charges of collecting military data

Watch live: Zelensky inspects French military equipment after Macron promises warplanes to Ukraine

Live: Zelensky inspects French military equipment after Macron promises warplanes

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Russian naval vessels that will be making port in Cuba next week is an attempt to invoke the historical memory of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, according to a leading thinktank.

The Cuban ministry of the revolutionary armed forces announced yesterday that four Russian northern fleet vessels would make an official visit to the port of Havana between 12-17 June.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the move was “likely part of a larger effort to invoke the historical memory of the Cuban missile crisis as part of Russia’s reflexive control campaign to encourage US self-deterrence”.

Moscow accuses Ukraine of using US rockets to shell civilian targets inside Russia

The Russian foreign ministry accused Ukraine of using US- supplied HIMARS rockets to shell civilian targets in Russia’s Belgorod region and of being responsible for the deaths of women and children.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova set out the allegation at a news conference held on the sidelines of an economic forum in St Petersburg.

She said fragments of the HIMARs rockets would serve as proof of what had happened.

Russia detains French NGO worker in Moscow on spying charges

Russia has arrested a French NGO worker on suspicion of spying on its military, a move that is likely to further strain already frought relations with Paris.

The Russian authorities claimed, without providing evidence, that the Frenchman was involved in the “targeted collection of information in the field of military-technical activities of the Russian Federation”.

They have launched a criminal case against him for allegedly violating the country’s law requiring any person receiving foreign support to register as a “foreign agent”.

Ukraine military downs nearly 50 drones

Ukrainian forces drowned 48 drones and five cruise missiles overnight, the military said in its morning update today.

The drones were launched from occupied Crimea, the Russian town of Yeysk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk, located on the coast of the Azov Sea, it added.

Russia reportedly flew Tu-95MS bomber planes to launch Kh-101 cruise missiles from Saratov Oblast.

Biden draws comparison between World War II and Ukraine

US president Joe Biden yesterday drew parallels between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and World War II throughout his speech commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France.

Mr Biden warned “the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine”.The president vowed that the US would “not walk away” from the conflict, claiming “if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated, and it will not end there”.

“Ukraine’s neighbours will be threatened, all of Europe will be threatened.”

Zelensky meets Biden and Macron in France

Biden calls putin a ‘dictator’.

US president Joe Biden said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is “not a decent man” but “a dictator” amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“He’s a dictator, and he’s struggling to make sure he holds his country together while still keeping this assault going,” Mr Biden told ABC World News during his trip to France to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

When asked about the US administration’s decision to authorise Ukraine to use American weapons to strike inside Russia, Mr Biden said the weapons were authorised to be used “in proximity to the border”.

“We’re not authorising strikes 200 miles into Russia, and we’re not authorising strikes on Moscow, on the Kremlin.”

“We’re not talking about giving them weapons to strike Moscow, to strike the Kremlin, to strike against — just across the border, where they’re receiving significant fire from conventional weapons used by the Russians to go into Ukraine to kill Ukrainians.”

President Emmanuel Macron said France plans to provide Mirage 2000 warplanes to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots this summer.

Mr Macron did not specify how many single-engine jet fighters would be provided, by when or under what financial terms.

He said France had proposed to train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers but did not clarify where the soldiers would be trained.

He made the announcement on the occasion of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to France as part of D-Day anniversary celebrations.

Mr Zelensky earlier in September said he had struck an agreement on training Ukraine pilots in France in conversation with Macron.

The head of the Ukrainian Air Force said in January that French Mirage aircraft may reinforce the Ukrainian air force.

US to send new $225m military aid package to Ukraine

The US will send about $225m in military aid to Ukraine, US officials said Thursday, in a new package that includes ammunition Kyiv’s forces could use to strike threats inside Russia to defend the city of Kharkiv from a heavy Russian assault.

The officials said the aid includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss aid not yet publicly announced.

Under a new US directive, Ukraine can use such weapons to strike across the border into Russia if forces there are attacking or preparing to attack.

That change, however, does not alter US policy that directs Ukraine not to use American-provided ATACMS or long-range missiles and other munitions to strike offensively inside Russia, according to US officials.

US to send new $225 million military aid package to Ukraine, officials say.

Russian warships headed to Caribbean for drills as tensions rise

The US has tracked Russian warships and aircraft that are expected to arrive in the Caribbean for a military exercise in the coming weeks.

The ships also are expected possibly to make port calls in Venezuela and Cuba, as Russia establishes a Western Hemisphere military presence that the senior Biden administration officials said was notable but not concerning.

The exercise will involve a “handful” of Russian ships and support vessels, the two officials said.

It’s not the first time Russia has sent its ships to the Caribbean.

This exercise, however, is taking place as Russian president Vladimir Putin has suggested that Moscow could take “asymmetrical steps” elsewhere in the world in response to president Joe Biden‘s decision to allow Ukraine to use US-provided weapons to strike inside Russia to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Russia detains French man for ‘espionage’

The authorities in Russia have arrested a French NGO worker on suspicion of allegedly gathering information about the activities of Vladimir Putin’s military.

A criminal case has been launched against the Frenchman for allegedly violating Russia’s law that requires a person receiving foreign support to register as a “foreign agent”.

Moscow said the man, who it did not name, was involved in the “targeted collection of information in the field of military [and] military-technical activities of the Russian Federation”.

“Such information, if obtained by foreign sources, may be used against the security of the state,” it added.

The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue told AFP it was trying to secure the release of a member of its team, identifying him as Laurent Vinatier.

The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue is a Geneva-based non-profit that works to prevent and resolve armed conflicts through mediation and discreet diplomacy, according to its website.

“We are aware that Laurent Vinatier, an adviser at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, has been detained in Russia,” it said in a statement. “We are working to get more details of the circumstances and to secure Laurent’s release.”