The WHO said on Tuesday that its ability to help residents of the Gaza Strip has “shrinked” as a “humanitarian catastrophe” unfolds in the area devastated by Israel's war against Hamas.
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“We see this humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes. “We are seeing the health system collapsing very quickly,” World Health Organization emergency coordinator Sean Casey said by videoconference from Gaza.
The Israeli army announced a new phase of its intervention in Gaza, launched with fewer troops and targeted operations following Hamas's bloody and unprecedented attack on its territory on October 7.
But according to Casey, the WHO has seen “no reduction in intensity” on the ground. “What we are still seeing is a large number of casualties from the fighting, such as shrapnel wounds, gunshot wounds, crushing injuries from collapsing buildings: this continues to happen every day,” he said.
Despite a UN Security Council resolution last month calling for more aid to Gaza, the situation has only gotten worse, according to the WHO.
“We have seen the humanitarian space shrink,” Mr. Casey said.
He stressed that the WHO and other UN agencies are “constantly trying to reach the areas of greatest need.”
“Every day we assemble our convoys, we wait for approval, but we don’t have it,” he lamented. “So we come back and do it again the next day.”
The WHO has been unable to visit northern Gaza over the past two weeks and has had to cancel six planned missions there.
According to the organization, only 15 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are at least partially functioning, most of them in the south.
The WHO described scenes of desperation in the few remaining hospitals in the north, which lacked food, water, medicine and fuel, and said the situation was increasingly difficult in the center and south of the territory.
Children
“The fighting and the orders to evacuate neighborhoods in the central area and Khan Yunis… are hindering access to hospitals for patients and ambulances, making it incredibly difficult for the WHO to reach these hospitals to provide them with supplies and fuel.” said Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the Palestinian territories.
From Jerusalem, he warned of a situation that would lead to a “catastrophe” and the closure of more hospitals.
The European Hospital in Gaza, Nasser Medical Center and Al-Aqsa Hospital in the center of the territory, which have long been the best-functioning facilities, are now near evacuation zones, Mr. Casey noted.
“We cannot lose these health facilities,” he said. “They absolutely have to be preserved.”
He visited Al-Aqsa Hospital on Sunday and found that hundreds of patients and about 70% of staff had fled as fighting increased nearby.
The remaining staff tried to help patients on blood-stained floors.
“Most of them were children with gunshot or shrapnel wounds, children who were playing in the street when a nearby building exploded,” Casey said.