GENEVA: A top World Health Organization official deplored Monday that none of the agency’s trucks with medical aid had been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip since Israel ended its blockade.
Humanitarian aid has begun trickling back into the Palestinian territory in recent days after more than two months of blocked access.
For more than 11 weeks, “there has been no WHO trucks entering into Gaza for medical care support”, the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional director Hanan Balkhy told a press conference in Geneva.
“The situation is devastating. We are not only worried about the immediate work that we are supporting, and are willing and hoping to continue to support the people, but we are extremely concerned about the aftermath of this,” she said, citing an impact on generations to come.
Israel has stepped up a renewed offensive to destroy the Hamas group, drawing international condemnation of the blockade since early March that has sparked severe food and medical shortages.
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“Around 400 trucks were cleared to go into Gaza… but supplies from only 115 trucks have been able to go through – and nothing has reached the besieged north,” said Balkhy, adding that none of those were WHO trucks.
She said 51 trucks with medical equipment on board were waiting to cross the border.
Ahmed Zouiten, the WHO region’s emergencies director, said he hoped it was just a question of time before the UN health agency’s trucks could cross into the territory.
But he said it was “too early for us to know” whether they would cross soon or whether there were “any issues that we have to follow up on”.
Israel’s renewed offensive has triggered international criticism, with European and Arab leaders meeting in Spain calling for an end to the “inhumane” and “senseless” war, while humanitarian groups say the trickle of aid is not nearly enough.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Hamas also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
On Monday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,977, mostly civilians.
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