UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Gaza health update

Gaza: Hospitals continue to overflow with people injured while seeking food - WHO

As besieged Palestinian civilians face widespread malnutrition and starvation, hospitals in the Strip are increasingly overwhelmed by the influx of victims of shootings and other injuries at food distribution areas, warns the World Health Organization.

The overall health situation remains catastrophic across the Gaza Strip”, said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). Speaking to journalists in Geneva, he explained that “less than 50 per cent of the hospitals and less than 38 per cent of the primary healthcare centers across the Gaza Strip are partially or minimally functional”.

The scale of the bloodshed has pushed an already struggling health care system to the breaking point, as medical workers scramble to treat the flow of casualties. “Hospitals are particularly overwhelmed by the injuries coming from the food distribution areas, which are also driving persistent shortage of blood and plasma,” warned Dr. Peeperkorn.

“The number of casualties among people trying to access food supplies has increased to 1,655 fatalities and more than 11,800 injuries since 27 of May 2025,” he emphasized.

Many of these victims have been shot at in areas near food distribution sites run by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), or while simply waiting for aid drops, according to humanitarians. The United Nations have been calling for the restoration of a unified, UN-led coordination and distribution of aid based on international humanitarian law.

Hospital bed occupancy across all of Gaza`s hospitals has far surpassed capacity, reaching 240 per cent at Al-Shifa Hospital and 300 per cent at Ahli Hospital, according to the UN health agency. Meanwhile critical shortages persist, with 52 per cent of essential medicines and 68 per cent of medical consumables, such as syringes and bandages, completely out of stock.

Hunger and malnutrition continue to devastate Gaza. As of the 5th of August, 147 people have died from the effects of malnutrition in 2025. This includes 98 adults, 49 children, among them 39 were under five years old.

“Nearly 12,000 children under five years in Gaza were identified to be suffering from acute malnutrition in July, the highest monthly figure recorded to date, according to the Nutrition Cluster,” Dr. Peeperkorn emphasized. Amongst them are 2,562 children who suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), forty of whom were hospitalized at stabilization centres. These numbers are likely underestimates, according to the UN health agency.

Malnutrition weakens the immune system, increasing susceptibility to infections and diseases. Since 7 August, WHO has registered 452 suspected meningitis cases, the highest number recorded since the beginning of the escalation in October 2023.

Seventy-six suspected cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) -- a post-infection syndrome where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the peripheral nervous system, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis -- were also reported across the Strip.

“It comes following respiratory and gastro-intestinal bacterial viral infections,” explained Dr. Rik Peeperkorn. “This highlights the exacerbation of risk factors and the necessity to mitigate that,” he insisted, referring to the collapse of WASH infrastructure (water, sanitation, hygiene), the overcrowded shelter camps, the malnutrition and restricted access to healthcare.

The first line treatment for GBS are intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) or plasma exchange (PLEX), neither of which is at all available in Gaza. Anti-inflammatories medicines are also missing.

Since June, WHO has brought in 80 trucks of medical supplies. Entry processes remain slow and challenging, according to the UN health agency, with items such as assistive devices, ICU beds, freezers, cold chain medicines, and anesthesia machines often denied entry.

Israeli displacement orders are a further impediment, WHO says: the agency’s Gaza City warehouse now sits in a military evacuation zone, as do one primary health care centre and one medical point.

With the expected evacuation of Gaza City, four hospitals, including a field hospital, an ambulance center and medical points that lie within 1,000 meters of the displacement area are likely to be further flooded by evacuees in need of treatment.

Amid concerns over the incursion, the World Health Organization wants to ensure hospitals are “at least a little stocked-up. We currently cannot do that, and we also want to rebuild our own reserves,” Dr. Peeperkorn said.

Ends --

Gaza health update - WHO

Similar Stories