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.
Lifesaving WHO health supplies land in Egypt for people-in-need in Gaza
14 October 2023, Cairo, Egypt – A plane carrying 78 cubic metres of health supplies from WHO’s logistics hub in Dubai has landed in Al-Arish airport in Egypt. The supplies will be delivered to Gaza to meet critical health needs as soon as humanitarian access through the Rafah crossing is established.
Every hour these supplies remain on the Egyptian side of the border, more girls and boys, women, and men, especially those vulnerable or disabled, will die while supplies that can save them are less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.
The supplies include enough trauma medicines and health supplies to treat 1200 wounded patients and 1500 patients suffering from heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and respiratory problems, and basic essential health supplies to serve the needs of 300,000 people, including pregnant women.
They also include trauma pouches with enough medicines and supplies to treat 235 wounded people. With hospitals in Gaza either nonfunctional or overwhelmed, and movement restricted due to fighting, these will enable injured people to be stabilized and receive immediate, lifesaving care anywhere it is needed.
WHO will work with the Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies to ensure transportation and delivery of the supplies through Egypt and into Gaza.
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.
While the Egyptian side of the crossing is accessible, the Israeli side remains closed.
The critically injured, the sick, and the vulnerable cannot wait. Too many lives have already been lost. WHO joins the calls for an immediate opening of a humanitarian crossing through the Rafah border into Gaza, for safe onward delivery of life-saving supplies to health facilities, for the delivery of fuel, water, food, and other items essential for survival, and for the protection of health care workers, patients, and civilians.
Related links
WHO pleads for immediate reversal of Gaza evacuation order to protect health and reduce suffering
Hospitals in the Gaza Strip at a breaking point, warns WHO
Hospitals in the Gaza Strip at a breaking point, warns WHO
Jerusalem, 12 October 2023 - WHO warns that the health system in the Gaza Strip is at a breaking point. Time is running out to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe if fuel and life-saving health and humanitarian supplies cannot be urgently delivered to the Gaza Strip amidst the complete blockade.
Hospitals have only a few hours of electricity each day as they are forced to ration depleting fuel reserves and rely on generators to sustain the most critical functions. Even these functions will have to cease in a few days, when fuel stocks are due to run out. The impact would be devastating for the most vulnerable patients, including the injured who need lifesaving surgery, patients in intensive care units, and newborns depending on care in incubators.
As injuries and fatalities continue to rise due to the ongoing air strikes on the Gaza Strip, acute shortages of medical supplies are compounding the crisis, limiting the response capacity of already overstretched hospitals to treat the sick and injured.
The situation has also gravely disrupted the delivery of essential health services, including obstetric care, management of noncommunicable diseases such as cancer and heart diseases, and treatment of common infections, as all health facilities are forced to prioritize lifesaving emergency care.
Access for emergency medical teams in the field is severely hampered by infrastructure damage. WHO has documented 34 attacks on health care in Gaza since last Saturday that have resulted in the death of 11 health workers on duty, 16 injuries, and damages to 19 health facilities and 20 ambulances.
Without the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza — especially health services, medical supplies, food, clean water, fuel, and non-food items — humanitarian and health partners will be unable to respond to urgent needs of people who desperately need it. Each lost hour puts more lives at risk.
WHO calls for an end to hostilities and the protection of health care and civilians against attacks. WHO also calls for the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor to ensure unimpeded access for health and humanitarian supplies, as well as for personnel, and the evacuation of patients and the injured. WHO further reiterates its call for the respect and protection of health care.
WHO is ready to immediately dispatch trauma and essential health supplies through its logistics hub in Dubai and working with partners to ensure that they can reach the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing. Urgent access through the crossing is essential so that WHO and other humanitarian agencies can act quickly to help save lives.
Ahmad’s testimony: PRCS paramedics detained and searched in Tulkarem
32-year-old Ahmad from the town of Tulkarem in the West Bank has been a volunteer paramedic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) for ten years.
In the early hours of Tuesday, 5 September, Ahmad travelled with other paramedics to Nur Shams refugee camp, southeast of Tulkarem, to respond to emergency medical needs of the residents during an Israeli incursion. Three PRCS ambulances and one private ambulance reached different entrances to the refugee camp after being notified of injuries. However, they were all prevented from entering the camp by Israeli military jeeps.
Ahmad received a call from within the refugee camp informing him that a person had been critically injured with live ammunition. After the ambulance was prevented access, Ahmad and another PRCS paramedic entered the camp on foot. There they found 21-year-old Ahed Abu Harb. He had sustained a severe head injury and showed no signs of life. Ahmad and his colleague took Ahed to the ambulance, which transferred him to Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem.
“On the way to the hospital, we noticed the military jeep that had previously prevented our access to the camp was following us. The driver of the jeep kept honking and signalling us to stop, but we knew we had to transfer the patient. At the hospital, Ahed was examined by the medical team and pronounced dead.”
On the way back to the PRCS centre in Tulkarem, Ahmad recalls how a military jeep pulled up beside the ambulance at a traffic light and signalled them to stop. Other military jeeps (around five in total) then surrounded the ambulance, and a military officer ordered the driver to get out.
“Two military officers came from behind the ambulance, pointed their guns at me and the other paramedic inside, and ordered us to get out. As we got out of the vehicle, the soldiers started pushing us and ordered us to take off our paramedic vests. They pushed the three of us towards a wall and forced us to stand facing it, while shouting at us. At some point, one of the soldiers started shooting in the air to intimidate us. They violently searched us and ordered us to pull up our shirts, assaulting us physically and insulting us. While we were standing next to the wall, the ambulance driver’s phone rang. A soldier took the phone and threw it on the ground. They continued detaining us, while other soldiers entered the ambulance and started throwing out the medical kit from inside. A soldier broke one of the ambulance windows. After throwing all the equipment out of the ambulance, they left without saying anything.”
Ahmad joined PRCS as a volunteer ten years ago, during Eid. He said, “This is not the first attack we have faced, but I have not experienced any as violent as this. We are frequently stopped and prevented access, ordered to turn back, and verbally attacked, and have guns pointed at us.”
Despite the difficulties, Ahmad remains committed to his volunteer work. “Such attacks will not stop me from going to the field. During one of the incursions of the camp, a bullet went through the window of the ambulance. The next day there was another incursion, and we were back in the field. I am not scared or put off continuing my work because of such experiences. On the contrary, I still volunteer even when I am not scheduled to be on duty. I see firsthand the impact and importance of our work and, when I’m in the field, all I think of is the people who need our support.”