WHO slams Gaza aid delivery hurdles
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According to the WHO, Gaza's health requirements were increasing at a time when its capacity to provide them was decreasing.
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Humanitarian aid convoy for the Gaza Strip parked in el-Arish Egypt on October 16, 2023 (AP)
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that it was nearly impossible to transfer medical supplies to hospitals and criticized the absence of safety guarantees for sending humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
According to the WHO, the Palestinian enclave's health requirements were increasing at a time when its capacity to provide them was decreasing.
Over the previous two weeks, the UN health agency has been able to get 54 metric tonnes of humanitarian aid into the region, but they announced that this would not even come close to meeting the extent of the need.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in a press conference that the organization will do all it can to ensure people in Gaza can access the life-saving services, adding that the current situation makes it "almost impossible".
Michael Ryan, the emergencies director for the WHO, called it "unconscionable" that the staff members' fundamental safety in Gaza could not be ensured at this time.
He asserted that the organization has never had such difficulty in establishing fundamental guidelines for minimum safety guarantees for humanitarian workers.
Ryan held the occupation authorities particularly responsible for ensuring that hospitals remain "not only protected but serviced and supplied with the adequate needs for the populations that they serve."
Delivering medical supplies to their designated locations, he noted, "has not been facilitated, that has not been supported; in fact, if anything, quite the opposite."
Tedros added that words are running out to "describe the horror unfolding in Gaza," emphasizing that the situation on the ground is indescribable. Hospital crammed with the injured, lying in corridors; morgues overflowing; doctors performing surgery without anaesthesia."
Ryan also added that the organization calls on "all who can to de-escalate this conflict, rather than inflame it."
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported on Thursday that the Israeli media had acknowledged dropping 10,000 bombs on the Strip since the beginning of the aggression on October 7.
The international organization said the quantity of explosives launched on Gaza exceeds 25,000 tons at a rate of 70 tons per square kilometer, noting that this amount of explosives is equivalent to twice the power of the US nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
In the past 48 hours, the Israeli occupation committed three massacres in the Jabalia refugee camp, which resulted in over 1,000 people martyred and wounded. Al-Shati' camp in Gaza also saw two massacres in the past 24 hours, leading to the martyrdom of over 30 Palestinians.
