WHO says it needs full access to Gaza after Israel-Hamas ceasefire
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Palestinians waiting to collect food handouts from a free kitchen run by volunteers in Khan Younis, central Gaza, on Jan 17.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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GENEVA – The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Jan 19 said it was ready to pour much-needed aid into Gaza after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire takes effect, but that it would need “systematic access” across the territory to do so.
Much of the Gaza Strip’s health infrastructure has been demolished by the more than year-long war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas before a ceasefire took hold on Jan 19
While the UN health body was “ready to scale up the response” to address the territory’s critical needs, the WHO said “it is critical that the security obstacles hindering operations are removed”.
In a statement, the agency said: “WHO will need conditions on the ground that allow systematic access to the population across Gaza, enabling the influx of aid via all possible borders and routes and lifting restrictions on the entry of essential items.”
Until the ceasefire, Israel had complete control over the volume and nature of aid allowed into Gaza.
Warning that the “health challenges ahead are immense”, the Geneva-based agency estimated the cost of rebuilding Gaza’s battered health system in the years to come at “billions in investment”.
Last week, the WHO put the figure at more than US$10 billion (S$13.7 billion).
“Only half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, nearly all hospitals are damaged or partly destroyed, and just 38 per cent of primary health care centres are functional,” the WHO said.
Basing its figures on those provided by the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry, which the UN considers reliable, the WHO put the war’s toll in Gaza at more than 46,600 people killed and over 110,000 injured.
A quarter of those injured “face life-changing injuries and will need ongoing rehabilitation”, the UN body estimated.
Around another 12,000 people need to be evacuated for urgent treatment elsewhere, it added, while warning the destruction of health infrastructure had knock-on effects.
The WHO also expressed concern over the “breakdown of public order, exacerbated by armed gangs” interfering with aid deliveries to Gaza. AFP
