Update health situation in Gaza WHO 09 January 2024

Shrinking humanitarian space and no ceasefire require a humanitarian corridor within Gaza – WHO

As the humanitarian situation in Gaza has been continuing to deteriorate during the last weeks, the UN health agency (WHO) on Tuesday warned of the ongoing health and humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian enclave and called for a humanitarian corridor to bring in urgent required supplies.

Speaking from Jerusalem, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said that “the shrinking humanitarian space and the lack of access, and we're not just talking about humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but also the humanitarian aid and the work as within Gaza,” hampers that aid can be delivered to people in need wherever they are in the north, in the middle or in southern area.

“As long as there's no ceasefire, humanitarian corridors are required within Gaza to make sure that this can happen,” the WHO official said.

WHO reiterated its call for the active protection of civilians and health care and full adherence to international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict.

“What we actually see that a constricted flow of supplies and access, but also very important, an evacuation of medical staff from the many hospitals due to fears of safety, they and their family leave,” said Dr. Peeperkorn. "It's a recipe of a disaster and makes the hospitals more nonfunctional. So they've gone from functional, partly functional, barely functional and we witness this in the north.”

Speaking from southern Gaza, Sean Casey, WHO Emergency Medical Teams coordinator said that “we're seeing a humanitarian catastrophe unfold before our eyes here across the Gaza Strip. It's not just that there's 85 per cent of the population that is been displaced. Many of them have been displaced multiple times here in Rafah, where I am. There's shelters, spontaneous shelters everywhere. People are sleeping under tarpaulins, under makeshift tents, in very crowded shelters.”

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 23,084 people have been killed in the enclave of whom killed 70 per cent were women and children. Nearly 59,000 people have also been injured, which is approximately 2.7 per cent of Gaza’s population.

Mr. Casey reported that “patients and their families are risking their lives to just seek care. And so these numbers that represented the 22,000 plus who have been killed, the 58,000 who were injured, many of them are treatable if they have access to care, they have injuries that are treatable. They have limbs that unfortunately are being amputated because they don't have access to surgery.”

In response to a journalist question whether the hostilities have decreased during the last days, Mr. Casey said that “the emergency departments are still seeing a steady stream of trauma […] among children who are playing in the streets, among people who are in their homes. So from our side, we are still seeing and - I can say this with certainty - a huge number of casualties and a huge number of casualties related to hostilities.” He added that “shrapnel injuries, gunshot wounds, crush injuries from buildings of the collapse, that's still happening every single day.”

WHO is particularly concerned about three hospitals located near evacuation zones – European Gaza Hospital, Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Aqsa – all three present a “lifeline” in the south for about two million people.

Since 26 December a total of six planned WHO humanitarian missions have had to be canceled, according to the WHO official.

“We plan missions almost every day to go to the middle area and to the north and we continuously struggle to get those missions cleared. And that has a huge consequence”, said Mr. Casey. “It means that hospitals don't have fuel. It means that patients don't have food. It means that there aren't supplies to care for the patients.”

Since two weeks the WHO has not been able to move humanitarian supplies to some of the most desperate hospitals in the north. “We continue to supply the south. But as I said, the few hospitals that are remaining are really bursting. They're bursting with patients, they're bursting with IDPs.”

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Update health situation in Gaza WHO 09 January 2024

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