Gaza: Health system crumbles amid renewed obstacles to aid delivery

The first meagre midweek delivery of urgently needed medical goods to enter Gaza in months will provide scant relief to the enclave’s people, who continue to be shot and killed as they search for food, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

“Definitely, people get shot,” said Gaza-based medic Dr. Luca Pigozzi, WHO Emergency Medical Team Coordinator. “They are victim of blast injuries as well and bodily injuries, for sure.”

The WHO official’s comments follow reports of another mass casualty incident on Thursday, this time involving a strike on a market in the central city of Deir al Balah.

More than 20 people were killed and approximately 70 others were injured, said the UN aid wing, OCHA, with victims rushed to Al Aqsa Hospital, Nasser Medical Complex and two other health facilities.

In addition to the latest deadly incident, at least 410 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to fetch aid from controversial non-UN aid hubs supported by Israel and the United States, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.

Providing high-quality medical care is very difficult in the wartorn occupied enclave today, “particularly because we are speaking about a high volume of patients every time”, Dr Pigozzi insisted.

Health needs are widespread and dramatic, with almost 50 per cent of medical stocks completely depleted.

WHO’s first medical shipment into Gaza on Wednesday was its first since 2 March, when Israel imposed a full blockade on the Strip.

In total, nine trucks carrying essential medical supplies entered the enclave with 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma; all transited through the Kerem Shalom crossing. It is “only a drop in the ocean” of what is required, Dr Pigozzi said.

Speaking to journalists from Jerusalem, WHO’s Dr Rik Peeperkorn highlighted renewed difficulties in securing agreement from the Israeli authorities to allow more UN and partner agencies’ supply trucks into Gaza.

“That's really unfortunate and should not happen, because you don't want to see those desperate people and specifically desperate young men risking their lives to get some food either,” he said, amid reports of a chaotic rush for supplies at non-UN distribution points and of starving Gazans taking goods directly off lorries.

Before the Israeli blockade, the UN and its humanitarian partners demonstrated that their aid delivery system reached those most in need, insisted Dr Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory. Today that is not the case because of repeated refusals by Israeli authorities to allow supplies into Gaza.

“Open the routes and make sure that we can get our supplies in,” he said. “The market needs to be flooded with food and non-food items and water, et cetera, et cetera, and including essential medicines in a most cost-effective manner.”

Since March, aid teams have encountered a 44 per cent denial rate, meaning that for every 10 staff requesting entry, “four to five of them are denied per rotation”, WHO’s Dr Pigozzi said.

Echoing that message, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier insisted that people are starving, sick and dying across Gaza every day. “They have been killed on the way trying to get medical help, they have been killed inside hospitals. Now, additionally, they are being killed on the way to get food items which are scarcely being provided,” he said.

“We have food and medical help minutes away across the border, sitting there and waiting for weeks and months by now. Just open the door.”

ends

STORY: Gaza update – WHO

TRT: 2’58”

SOURCE: UNTV CH

RESTRICTIONS: NONE

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS

ASPECT RATIO: 16:9

DATELINE: 27 JUNE 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Speakers

• Dr. Luca Pigozzi - Emergency Medical Team Coordinator (from Gaza)
• Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory (from Jerusalem)
• Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, WHO (via Zoom)

SHOTLIST

1. Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, flag alley.
2. Wide, Press room podium and journalists.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Luca Pigozzi - Emergency Medical Team Coordinator (from Gaza): “Definitely, people get shot. They are victim of blast injuries as well and bodily injuries, for sure. And with all the challenges that were described before, I think it's very also much important to understand that providing high-quality medical care is very much difficult and hard, particularly because we are speaking about high volume of patients every time.”
4. Wide, Press room podium and journalists.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory (from Jerusalem): “We again seem to have difficulties now getting new trucks and that's really unfortunate and should not happen, because you don't want to see those desperate people and specifically desperate young men risking their lives to get some food either left or right.”
6. Medium, journalist.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Luca Pigozzi - Emergency Medical Team Coordinator (from Gaza): “It's important to remember that almost 50 per cent of the medical stock is completely depleted across the Gaza Strip. And what we have been entering since two days is only a drop in the ocean.”
8. Medium-wide, podium speaker, journalists.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory (from Jerusalem): “The UN and its partners, humanitarian partners have a system in place and it has proven that it works - not just during the ceasefire, even before, it works. So, let that happen and open the routes and make sure that we can get our supplies in, not just for health, specifically for foods; the market needs to be flooded with food and non-food items and water, et cetera, et cetera, and including essential medicines in a most cost-effective manner.”
10. Medium-wide, journalists.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Luca Pigozzi - Emergency Medical Team Coordinator (from Gaza): “In the last months starting from March up to June, we are experiencing 44 per cent of denial rate; which means that if we try to enter 10 individuals from different teams, four to five of them are denied per rotation, so I think it's really worrisome.”
12. Medium-wide, podium speakers, journalists.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, WHO: “People are starving. People are sick. People are dying in Gaza on a daily basis. They have been killed on the way trying to get medical help, they have been killed inside hospitals. Now, additionally, they are being killed on the way to get food items which are scarcely being provided.”
14. Medium-wide, journalists.
15. SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, WHO: “At the same time, we have food and medical help minutes away across the border, sitting there and waiting for weeks and months by now. Just open the door. That's all that needs.”
16. Medium, journalist, participant.