“We have distributed a huge amount of essential medical supplies, but it is not enough. I mean, This is such an overwhelming disaster, it is not enough” said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, UN World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Palestine.
Speaking in Geneva on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly, the senior WHO official reiterated widespread international condemnation of the Israeli airstrike on a camp for displaced people in Tal as-Sultan, northwest of Rafah, that left dozens dead on Sunday.
“WHO actually deplores this attack on displaced persons. It shows that there is no safe place in Gaza at all,” he said UN newsas video of the field hospital treating victims distributed by the UN aid agency, OCHAshowed an injured father crying as he described the moment his children died.
“When the strike hit, I thought about my children,” said Mohammad Al Ghouf. “I promised them I would go to the supermarket, do some shopping and cuddle them. But unfortunately I’m here, and they’re in a different place.
In the same OCHA footage captured on Monday, the medical director of the International Medical Corps (IMC) field hospital described the grim task of preparing lifeless victims for burial.
“I saw the dead body of a father holding his child, perhaps about three years old. They were burned and charred. We couldn’t separate them. So, we had to put them both in a body bag. It was very, very difficult.”
Burn care is lacking
About 75 patients were treated at the IMC field hospital.
“Of those 75, 25 were very critical,” the IMC official added, fueling deep concerns that the specialized burn and trauma care and medicines they need are out of reach in Gaza since the Israeli army previously took over the main border crossing at Rafah. this month.
“You can only do so much in Gaza. And when it comes to really extensive burns and so on, there is no place in Gaza right now where that can be treated,” said Dr. Peeperkorn. “Since the closure of the Rafah border crossing, only three trucks have entered Rafah. They came through Kerem Shalom and that is the only supply. Fortunately, we still have some stock, but it is running out quickly.”
The dangerous lack of life-saving aid could be reversed if trucks carrying humanitarian aid are allowed into the enclave in large numbers, the WHO official stressed.
Barriers to aid remain
“There are 60 WHO trucks in El Arish (in Egypt) ready to enter Gaza. So once again this plea: the Rafah border crossing should be opened not only for medical goods, but also for all other humanitarian goods.” he said.
“We have distributed a huge amount of essential emergency medical supplies, but it is not enough. This is such an overwhelming disaster. If there were now a sustainable ceasefire and access routes to Gaza were well managed, if there was a deconfliction mechanism that actually facilitated and supported, much more would be possible.”
The UN health agency has previously warned that more Gazans will die unless urgently needed medical evacuations for seriously ill or injured people outside the enclave are allowed. It is believed that some “more than 10,000” people need urgent transport outside Gaza for treatment, but that is not the case since the closure of Rafah on May 6, “there has been no more medical evacuation outside Gaza, and it was already a major problem before” said Dr. Peeperkorn.
More than a million uprooted
This was reported by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees. UNRWAand OCHA, the intensification of hostilities and the issuance of evacuation orders have displaced more than 940,000 people from Rafah in the past three weeks, in addition to 100,000 displaced in northern Gaza.
“The attacks on Rafah continue unabated and civilians displaced by hostilities are without shelter, food, water and other supplies and services essential to their survival,” OCHA said in an update on Tuesday..
The same update reported that health facilities in Gaza continue to face severe shortages of fuel and medical supplies “while dealing with a rising influx of casualties due to injuries and burns.” The Nasser Medical Complex also called on people to donate blood, OCHA noted.
The humanitarian update reflected long-standing concerns about the lack of aid reaching Gaza and highlighted that while theThe Kerem Shalom transition “remains open in principle, it is extremely difficult for aid agencies to gain access from the Gaza side due to hostilities, challenging logistical conditions and complex coordination procedures…access restrictions continue to hinder the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza.”
Between May 1 and May 26, OCHA reported that Israeli authorities facilitated only 137 humanitarian assistance missions to areas requiring coordination across Gaza; 86 were “impeded after being given the green light or initially denied entry, and 43 were canceled by organisers”.
Healing necessary
Amid the ongoing devastation caused by nearly eight months of war in Gaza, which began in response to Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel, the WHO official stressed the need to support the future reconstruction of Gaza’s largely destroyed healthcare system to to help the region recover and support lasting peace.
“When you start thinking about the healing process and the early recovery and reconstruction, we have to think very differently about bringing the supplies into Gaza, including, of course, specific health and medical equipment and supplies,” said dr. Peeperkorn, underscoring the historical difficulties associated with introducing standard medical equipment.
“It took us almost two years to take three mobile X-rays. Every referral hospital anywhere in the world has a number of these mobile x-rays; they are almost everywhere in the references. So it makes absolutely no sense and I just want to make this point clear: we all hope that there will be a lasting ceasefire very soon,” he said.
UN News/Anton Uspensky
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, head of WHO’s West Bank and Gaza office, interviewed by UN News.
“We must also look to the future, we must push for a lasting ceasefire and then… early recovery, a rehabilitation process (should) begin as soon as possible. There should be a Palestinian solution,” the WHO official continued, noting that Gaza still has “many very capable health workers,” many of whom work as volunteers, who “should be the focus and center” of the reconstruction and rehabilitation process.
