The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
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
- Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, flag alley.
- Wide, Press room podium and journalists.
- 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.”
- Wide, Press room podium and journalists.
- 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.”
- Medium, journalist.
- 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.”
- Medium-wide, podium speaker, journalists.
- 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.”
- Medium-wide, journalists.
- 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.”
- Medium-wide, podium speakers, journalists.
- 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.”
- Medium-wide, journalists.
- 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.”
- Medium, journalist, participant.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
Gaza: Life-saving medicines blocked as killing continues, disease gains ground
In Gaza, a dire humanitarian situation marked by continuing violence, rodent infestations and the spread of diseases is being made worse by blockages of essential medical supplies, UN agencies warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights spokesperson Shabia Mantoo, warned against the continuing trend of involuntary returns of Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers from host countries to Afghanistan, in violation of international human rights and refugee law, at the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | IFRC , OHCHR
Lebanon's first responders face high risks amid conflict, with 116 killed since March.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
DRC Ebola outbreak: hundreds of suspected cases, no vaccine
A fast-spreading Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has health workers rushing to stop transmission while the roll out of any potential vaccine is months away, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
A UN Human Rights Office report released today covers 19 months of large-scale violations of international law including atrocity crimes, from October 2023 to the end of May 2025.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNICEF
At least six million people in Somalia are going days without enough food, UN aid teams warned on Friday, highlighting that nearly two million of this number are young children “at high risk of illness or death”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF , WHO
Children shot, stabbed and pepper-sprayed in occupied West Bank; scores of Gaza amputees denied prosthetics, aid teams warn
Israeli military operations and surging settler attacks in the occupied West Bank are killing and maiming Palestinian children, while in Gaza tens of thousands with life-changing injuries lack access to treatment and rehabilitation, UN agencies warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
The risk of hantavirus spreading to the general population is “absolutely low”, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) stressed on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , IFRC
Death and destruction have continued unabated in Lebanon while communities are still unable to return to their homes despite a ceasefire that began on 17 April, humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Deadly hantavirus on board cruise ship may be transmitted among humans - WHO
Hantavirus victims on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean may have been infected prior to joining the cruise and human-to-human transmission on board cannot be ruled out – although it is rare - the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN rights chief concerned by upheld convictions of Cambodian activists.