On December 4, the United Nations’ health agency, the World Health Organization (WHO), announced that it had been warned to move supplies from its warehouse in southern Gaza within 24 hours “as ground operations will put it beyond use.” WHO officials, including Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called upon Israeli authorities to rescind the order.
However, they did not delay moving the supplies, anticipating that their appeals would go unanswered. The last two months of Israel’s war on Gaza have set a new and dangerous precedent regarding attacks on health workers and infrastructure as Israel has refused to stop its attacks on these institutions in complete violation of international humanitarian law.
Read more: Israel surrounds Indonesian hospital in Gaza with tanks, kills at least 12
During a press conference on December 4 organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), representatives of WHO warned that since the beginning of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip on October 7, the number of functioning hospital beds fell from 3,500 to 1,500. Based on situation assessments, the number of beds currently needed is close to 5000, said Rick Brennan, Regional Emergency Director of WHO EMRO.
The WHO is in Palestine to “stay and deliver” care, the organization’s representatives said during the conference. Yet, it has expressed deep disillusionment with the current situation on the ground. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, called the conditions all over Gaza “very devastating.” He pointed out that it is now impossible to provide adequate care to the people who need it. This refers not only to those injured in the attacks but also to those who need acute care and those living with non-communicable diseases.
Pregnant women at particular risk
Pregnant women are at particular risk in the current context, Ryan said. Of the 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, at least 15% will need a cesarean section, and around one quarter of the babies delivered in these circumstances will be premature. This means that both women and children will require care that cannot be provided without enough medical supplies or electricity.
The same population is also at risk of the rising danger of infectious diseases outbreaks, including Hepatitis E, which spreads through contaminated water. Up to 25% of pregnant women can die of Hepatitis E if they are infected during their third trimester, and all are exposed to an increased risk of fetal loss and liver failure. The presence of hepatitis remains a pressing concern for public health experts, also given the growing number of cases of jaundice, often associated with this kind of infection.
The local WHO office warned particularly against the increased presence of respiratory infections and diarrhea. Since October 7, according to local reports, there was a twenty-fold increase in diarrhea cases among young children. “While these might not sound like the epidemics that you’ve been hearing about that sound very frightening, they are actually the illnesses that kill people more regularly around the world [if the underlying causes are not addressed],” a member of the local WHO team told journalists.
The overall epidemiological situation is “ripe for the spread of disease,” Brennan said. One of the most acute problems remains the overcrowding in shelters, including UNRWA centers. There is currently one toilet per 100 people in the UN-run centers. The minimum standard that needs to be met is 20 people per toilet. According to Brennan, it is “very likely that an outbreak is just around the corner.” The only way to stop it is to scale up access to sanitation, de-congest the living spaces, and allow access to adequate amounts of clean water. In other words, as Brennan and Ryan put it, the only realistic solution to the current public health crisis in Gaza is a ceasefire.
Right now, Palestinians are not only denied the most basic life resources, but they are also witnessing ferocious attacks against their health workers. The trend has also affected WHO staff. Recently, a WHO-coordinated medical convoy from Al-Shifa hospital was stopped by Israeli Occupying Forces at a checkpoint and held for six hours. The WHO staff was then forced to continue the journey south without some of their local peers, who were detained and whose status at the time of the press conference remained unknown to the agency’s staff.
Read more: Israel extends detention of Al-Shifa hospital’s director by 45 days
Ryan said the WHO was “extremely alarmed” about the detention of health workers during the evacuation. He also pointed out that WHO staff are not equipped to face armed soldiers and, in this particular situation, had to choose between escorting patients in very serious conditions to a safer location and staying behind. What happened at that checkpoint had “nothing to do with WHO, and it had everything to do with the level of oppression, the huge number of troops on the ground,” said Ryan.
Following the statements issued by WHO officials on Monday, Israel continued to attack hospitals and health centers across the Gaza Strip, leading to more deaths and casualties. The attacks now threaten hospitals in southern Gaza, including the area of Khan Younis. Hospitals trying to keep afloat despite the attacks include the Nasser Medical Complex and the European Gaza Hospital, where tens of thousands of people are taking shelter and where the health situation is growing bleaker by the hour.
“People at this point really don’t know where to go. They’ve been pushed around. They’ve got no idea how to save themselves and save their families,” said Michael Ryan.
“It’s not only about the bombs, it’s not only about the guns. It’s about the siege, it’s about the blockade, it’s about denying people the very basic needs to survive,” Ryan said, reasserting the WHO’s call for a ceasefire once again.
People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.
