THE World Health Organization said it led missions to barely functioning hospitals in northern Gaza at the weekend, describing growing desperation and starving people stripping an aid truck of supplies.
The UN health agency and its partners delivered aid, including fuel, to the devastated Al-Shifa hospital, once Gaza’s biggest and most advanced medical facility, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said late Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.
What the participants in the December 23 mission witnessed was “rising desperation due to acute hunger,” Tedros said.
“Partners demand immediate scale-up of food and water to ensure population health and stability.”
Residents of the refugee camp of Bureij arrive in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip following an evacuation order, on December 22, 2023, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Photo by AFP)
Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign that has killed more than 20,400 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
At Al-Shifa, Tedros warned that “relentless hostilities and massive numbers of wounded people have brought its capacities to its knees”.
He voiced hope that Saturday’s delivery of 19,200 litres of generator fuel would help revive vital services at the hospital, which can currently only provide “the most basic of first aid”.
