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As Gaza’s health system disintegrates, WHO calls for safe passage of fuel, supplies for health facilities
24 October 2023 – WHO remains unable to distribute fuel and essential, life-saving health supplies to major hospitals in northern Gaza due to lack of security guarantees. WHO calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire so health supplies and fuel can be delivered safely throughout the Gaza Strip.
Some of the facilities waiting for WHO supplies and fuel in northern Gaza include Al-Shifa hospital, where bed occupancy is already close to 150%. Last night, the Indonesian Hospital was forced to shut down some critical services due to lack of fuel, and is now running with limited functionality. The Turkish Friendship Hospital, the only oncology hospital in the Gaza Strip, remains partially functional due to lack of fuel, putting around 2000 cancer patients at risk.
In addition to the hospitals that have had to close due to damage and attacks, six hospitals across the Gaza Strip have already shut down due to lack of fuel. Unless vital fuel and additional health supplies are urgently delivered into Gaza, thousands of vulnerable patients risk death or medical complications as critical services shut down due to lack of power. These include 1000 patients dependent on dialysis, 130 premature babies who need a range of care, and patients in intensive care or requiring surgery who depend on a stable and uninterrupted supply of electricity to stay alive.
Yesterday, WHO, with support from UNRWA, delivered 34,000 liters of fuel to four major hospitals in southern Gaza and the Palestine Red Crescent Society to sustain its ambulance services. However, this is only enough to keep ambulances and critical hospital functions running for a little over 24 hours.
Some of WHO’s medicines and health supplies have already been delivered to four key hospitals in southern Gaza, as well as to the Palestine Red Crescent Society for distribution to two of its health facilities and ambulance crews. WHO teams delivering the supplies say health staff were so relieved to have replenishments, they took boxes of supplies off the trucks and straight into operating theatres, where doctors have been performing surgeries without anesthesia or other basic surgical supplies.
For people in the Gaza Strip, the situation is desperate. It will become catastrophic without the safe and continuous passage of fuel and health supplies, and additional humanitarian assistance. WHO reiterates its calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for the safe delivery of health supplies and fuel throughout the Gaza Strip.
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21 October 2023, Cairo - The supplies include trauma medicines and supplies for 1200 people and portable trauma bags for on-the-spot stabilization of up to 235 injured people. They also include chronic diseases medicines and treatments for 1500 people and basic essential medicines and health supplies for 300,000 people for three months. WHO is working with the Egyptian and Palestine Red Crescent societies to ensure the safe passage of these critical supplies and their delivery to hospitals and health facilities. Inside Gaza, hospitals have already reached breaking point due to shortages and the depletion of medicines and medical supplies.
These supplies are a lifeline for severely injured people or those battling chronic illnesses, who have endured a harrowing two weeks of limited access to care and severe shortages of medicines and medical supplies. WHO calls for the protection of humanitarian aid teams in Gaza as they work to ensure the safe delivery of these supplies to where they are most needed. The supplies currently heading into Gaza will barely begin to address the escalating health needs as hostilities continue to grow. A second plane landed in Al-Arish from the United Arab Emirates yesterday carrying humanitarian supplies donated by IOM, UNICEF, the Emirati Red Crescent, and WHO.
WHO supplies include surgical instruments and equipment for 1000 people, as well as tents and water tanks. Another plane carrying WHO supplies is due to land in Al-Arish later this morning. WHO supplies on these flights include medicines, surgical supplies and instruments, infusions, disinfectant, antibiotics, water tanks, and tents. With more supplies for Gaza expected to land in Egypt over the coming days, WHO calls for sustained and uninterrupted humanitarian access through the Rafah border crossing.
WHO statement on attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza
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WHO pleads for immediate reversal of Gaza evacuation order to protect health and reduce suffering
13 October 2023, WHO joins the wider United Nations in appealing to Israel to immediately rescind orders for the evacuation of over 1 million people living north of Wadi Gaza. A mass evacuation would be disastrous—for patients, health workers and other civilians left behind or caught in the mass movement.
With ongoing airstrikes and closed borders, civilians have no safe place to go. Almost half of the population of Gaza is under 18 years of age. With dwindling supplies of safe food, clean water, health services, and without adequate shelter, children and adults, including the elderly, will all be at heightened risk of disease.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed WHO that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients without endangering their lives. Vulnerable patients include those who are critically injured or dependent on life support. Moving them amid hostilities puts their lives at immediate risk.
The two Ministry of Health hospitals in the North of Gaza that continue to be operational, have greatly exceeded their combined 760-bed capacity with severe overcrowding. Of the thousands of patients with injuries and other conditions receiving care in hospitals, there are hundreds that are severely wounded and over 100 who require critical care. These are the sickest of the sick. Many thousands more, also with wounds or other health needs, cannot access any kind of care.
The compressed timeframe, complex transport logistics, damaged roads, and, above all, lack of supportive care during transport all add to the difficulty of moving them.
Furthermore, the four Ministry of Health hospitals in the south of Gaza are already at or beyond capacity, and lack the critical care capacity and supplies needed to treat additional patients.
The lack of medical supplies is already endangering patients and hampering health workers. Supplies which WHO had pre-positioned in Gaza have mostly been consumed.
On 9 October, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who agreed to a WHO request to facilitate the delivery of health and other humanitarian supplies from WHO to Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
WHO has prepared medical supplies in its logistics hub in Dubai and is ready to deliver them to Areesh, Egypt—just 20 minutes from Rafah—as soon as landing permit is received. The supplies would be enough to care for more than 300,000 patients with a range of wounds and diseases.
WHO asks for the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor for their onward, safe delivery to health care facilities in Gaza, including via Rafah.
WHO reiterates its plea for humanitarian access for life-saving supplies and the delivery of fuel, water, and food; for protection under international humanitarian law for civilians, health workers and health infrastructure; and ultimately, for an end to hostilities and violence.
