The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “still catastrophic” and has seen only a “marginal” improvement since the ceasefire, with worse to come due to the Middle East war, senior World Health Organization officials told reporters Thursday.
There are $6 million worth of medicines that can’t reach Gaza due to supply disruptions in the Middle East, Hanan Balkhy, WHO director for the Eastern Mediterranean region, said. The chaos “will take away, for sure, from the support needed for the people in Gaza,” she said.
Israel closed border crossings in and out of Gaza after striking Iran last weekend, claiming the enclave had adequate humanitarian supplies and there would be “no impact on the humanitarian situation.” Israel said Tuesday it would reopen the crossing to allow for the “gradual entry of humanitarian aid,” reported Le Monde with AFP.
Balkhy, however, said the volume of aid entering Gaza “was and is not enough,” while WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the improvement since the ceasefire was “actually marginal.”
“We need 600 trucks to cross into Gaza every single day but currently it’s not more than between 100 and 150,” Tedros said, adding the border closures had interrupted “good progress” on the number of medical evacuations.
“I would like to use this opportunity actually to ask Israel to allow us to take patients [from Gaza] to east Jerusalem and [the] West Bank,” Tedros said. Some of the trucks entering Gaza were “commercial” and didn’t really help people who couldn’t afford the supplies, he said.
POLITICO contacted Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
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