“The population has gone almost completely expropriated of the resources and capacities to ensure food security, shelter, health and livelihoods,” said Maryse Guimond, UN women‘s Special Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “Women asked me: ‘When can we go back home?’ Each displacement has brought more loss and fear.”
Dignity, privacy gone
In a video call with journalists in Geneva, veteran humanitarian Ms. Guimond described seeing people “crammed” in makeshift shelters and deprived of even the most basic necessities. In a school-turned-shelter run by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), there are only 25 toilets for the 14,000 people seeking safety in the compound and the 59,000 others camping outside, she noted.
Highlighting the “enormous” challenges of access to Gaza’s last functioning hospitals today, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the enclave’s health workers, midwives and physicians are now treating many more low birth weight babies than before the war.
Despair during the caesarean section
“We see a lot of premature babies and low birth weight babies and you often see that in times of conflict, war… but we even had stories where women going to the hospital requested an early cesarean section to ensure they would give birth safely because they were completely unclear and afraid of access, whether they would be able to access the hospital later, because of the unstable security situation and the constantly changing situation.”
Aside from the risks of childbirth in Gaza today for mothers and their babies in a place where “there is hardly any prenatal care,” the WHO doctor highlighted the “astonishing” amount trauma cases, amputees and patients with chronic health conditions who need to be urgently evacuated from the enclave for treatment.
Medivac profession
Since the outbreak of war on October 7 after Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel, some 4,800 patients have been evacuated from Gaza for medical reasons, most of them to Egypt and elsewhere in the region.
But “at least another 10,000 patients” now need specialist treatment outside the enclave, Dr Peeperkorn said – “half of them were related to the war and half were related to what we call the chronic diseases: … not -communicable diseases, including serious mental health cases”.
Before the war, some 50 to 100 medical evacuations took place regularly from Gaza to hospitals in the West Bank, the WHO official explained, calling for the reopening of the Rafah crossing in the south of the enclave, or to nearby Kerem Shalom to be used instead.
The UN health agency has also pushed back on claims by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) that recently announced pauses in fighting have led to an improvement in the humanitarian situation.
“And the reason is that this humanitarian pause was not reflected on the ground; there was not a single day when we could say that we would take advantage of this humanitarian pause… to bring from Kerem Shalom the supplies that are waiting for us,” said Dr. Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency response officer.
The UN Aid Coordination Office, OCHAreiterated these concerns and emphasized Israel’s responsibility under international humanitarian law as an occupying power to ensure that relief supplies, including fuel, reach those who need them most, including through the “complete destruction of public order” and reports of tackle looting.
“Of course, we welcome any initiative aimed at facilitating the delivery of aid and we have reached an agreement with COGAT on coordinated movements aimed at facilitating safe movements of humanitarian aid,” spokesman Jens Laerke said, referring to the Israeli body that monitors deliveries.
“In reality, as we hear from the ground, very little has come of it. Fighting in the area may have subsided as a result of these coordinated movements, but it is not the only obstacle for our colleagues to provide assistance in the area between Kerem Shalom and Salah Al Din Road.”
Fractional benefits
Echoing these concerns, WHO’s Dr Gargavanis said the impact of the closure of the Rafah crossing, the increase in fighting and the continued forced displacement of Gazans meant that what is being achieved in Gaza is “only a fraction of what we should do”.
He added: “I know we say this over and over again. However, everyone must understand that for every international (worker) now entering the Gaza Strip, the process is long, risky and requires a huge amount of resources.”
“Right now, through Kerem Shalom, we have to lead ourselves, we have to drive the armored vehicles ourselves to ensure that the international community continues to enter and exit the Gaza Strip. This is just one of the major issues we face.”
