The World Health Organisation said on Friday that large quantities of medical supplies intended for the Gaza Strip were awaiting approval to enter for an average of 74 days. It condemned what it described as a “chronic shortage” and a continuing succession of delays in bringing humanitarian aid through Israel, at a time when none of the territory’s hospitals is operating at full capacity.
WHO describes Gaza’s health situation as catastrophic
Reinhelde van de Weerd, the organisation’s representative in the Palestinian territories, described the health situation in Gaza as “still extremely catastrophic”. Speaking from Jerusalem to journalists in Geneva, she said the humanitarian aid entering the territory was insufficient and did not allow health services to be expanded or effectively restored.
Van de Weerd said Israel’s approval system for the entry of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid was a major obstacle to their delivery. She described the procedures as a laborious and lengthy process that did not guarantee approval to bring in shipments. Citing the World Health Organisation’s latest analysis, the official said large medical supplies remained awaiting permission for an average of 74 days.
Approval procedures delay medical shipments
She added that if shipments did not enter after that period, the authorities concerned had to restart the lengthy and complex process, noting that the approval system was constantly changing as new rules were introduced. Israel says it prevents the entry of materials that could have military uses.
It also accuses Hamas of planning further acts of violence following the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. According to Van de Weerd, basic medical supplies commonly used around the world recorded the lowest approval rates.
She said X-ray machines, sterilisation equipment and spare parts needed for computed tomography machines, known as “CT scanners”, along with other essential equipment, were repeatedly rejected. She added that a shipment containing prostheses and assistive devices had been rejected four separate times in the past six months alone.
By contrast, she said the process for bringing in medicines was proceeding “relatively well”, with around 87% approved, while the proportion of medicines rejected did not exceed 1%. The WHO representative stressed that the problem was not limited to a single obstacle, but concerned an entire system in which delays kept occurring, emphasising that behind every delay was a patient waiting.
Calls to open crossings and clarify shipment procedures
She called for humanitarian and health supplies to be allowed into Gaza without hindrance, regularly and in large quantities. Van de Weerd said she hoped Israel would, at the very least, ease the restrictions imposed on medical supplies. She also called for more crossings into the territory to be opened, and for clear, publicly available guidance on the procedures and requirements for approving the entry of shipments.
The official warned against using the number of trucks crossing the border as a measure of the success of the humanitarian response, explaining that the figure did not show whether the population’s actual health needs had been met. She said a truck carrying supplies that were not a priority, or the arrival of the right materials too late, did not save lives.
The Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 killed 1221 people, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli figures. The war Israel launched on Gaza in response to the attack has killed more than 74,000 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose data the United Nations considers reliable.
