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GENEVA: Getting humanitarian aid through Israel into Gaza is layered with \u201cdelay after delay,\u201d the World Health Organization said Friday, as it decried \u201cchronic shortages\u201d of medical supplies.<\/p>\n
Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, the WHO\u2019s representative in the Palestinian territories, said the health situation in the Gaza Strip \u201cremains utterly dire,\u201d with none of its hospitals fully functional.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot enough humanitarian aid is entering Gaza, and definitely not enough to allow for a meaningful expansion and restoration of health services,\u201d she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
She said Israel\u2019s approval system for medical and other humanitarian supplies was proving a major bottleneck.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is laborious, time-consuming, with no guaranteed results,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Based on the WHO\u2019s latest analysis, large volumes of medical supplies wait for clearance for a median of 74 days, said Van de Weerdt, adding that if it is not, \u201cthan we start that lengthy, cumbersome process all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that the approval system kept changing, with new regulations introduced.<\/p>\n
Israel says it is preventing the entry of items that could also have military use as it accuses Hamas \u2014 which carried out the worst-ever attack against Israel on October 7, 2023 \u2014 of plotting further violence.<\/p>\n
\u2018RELEASE THE PRESSURE\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Van de Weerdt said standard health kits used worldwide had the lowest approval rate, while X-ray machines, sterilization equipment and spare parts for CT scans and other essential machinery \u201cget rejected regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn just the last six months alone, one shipment of prosthetics and assistive devices was rejected four separate times,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n However, medicines move \u201crelatively well,\u201d with almost 87 percent approved and one percent rejected, she added.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not one single blockage. It\u2019s a system, layered with delay after delay… and on the other side of every one of these delays is a patient who is waiting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need the unimpeded and predicable entry of humanitarian and health supplies into Gaza, at scale.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that Israel will at least release the pressure on medical supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n Van de Weerdt called for more crossings into the territory to be opened, and for \u201cclear, published guidance\u201d on processes and requirements.<\/p>\n She added that success should not be measured in terms of numbers of trucks crossing the border, insisting that it says \u201calmost nothing about whether people\u2019s actual health needs are being met.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA truck full of non-priority supplies, or the right supplies arriving too late, doesn\u2019t save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas\u2019s unprecedented 2023 attack against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.<\/p>\n The massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 74,000 people, according to Gaza\u2019s health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n