With border closed, Gaza hospitals run low on fuel
THE World Health Organization (WHO) said it is ready to transport truckloads of fuel for hospitals in the embattled Gaza Strip once the border crossing to Egypt is opened.
In a media briefing on Thursday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said fuel is needed for hospital generators, ambulances, and desalination plants.
The WHO has trucks loaded with fuel, ready to go, and it has mobilized $10 million to support this response, Ghebreyesus said.
The Rafah border crossing remained closed, although Israel has said it will allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
«The hospitals ran out of fuel days ago. What has been happening is we've been finding fuel. Others have found fuel in reserve stocks. What is left are tiny amounts of fuel that are being repurposed within the UN and NGO systems to desperately try and provide extra fuel in a couple of days,» Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO's health emergencies program, said.
Despite the Israeli airstrikes and other risks, the WHO team has delivered medical supplies enough to care for 2,000 patients in Gaza hospitals.
On Saturday, WHO delivered a planeload of medical supplies to Egypt from its logistics hub in Dubai, and a further four flights with 40 metric tons of supplies are expected to arrive over the course of next week.
The supplies include trauma medicines to treat wounded patients, medicines for those with diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, and other essential health supplies to serve the needs of 300,000 people, including the pregnant.
Ghebreyesus said the agency «is gravely concerned about the health and well-being of the civilians in Gaza, who are suffering from bombardment and siege. I also deplore the attacks on health care in both Gaza and Israel, which have led to deaths and injured of health workers.»
He said the bomb that struck the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza Tuesday night and the loss of life it caused cannot be tolerated, regardless of who was responsible.
The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that 471 people died in the bombing and 342 were injured, according to the representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn.
Sixteen of those killed were
