UNRWA announced that it has facilitated the delivery of emergency medical supplies and medicines needed by the World Health Organization to the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.

UNRWA and the World Health Organization said in a joint statement issued by them that the medical supplies were delivered despite the great risks to which its employees and partners in the health field are exposed due to the ongoing bombing in Gaza, indicating that this is only the second time that life-saving supplies have been delivered to the hospital. Since the escalation of the aggression and the start of the comprehensive blockade on Gaza, on October 24, the World Health Organization has delivered medical supplies to the hospital amidst a state of severe insecurity.

It explained that the quantities delivered are still insufficient to respond to the enormous needs in the Gaza Strip, indicating that the medical conditions in Al-Shifa Hospital, which is considered the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip and one of the oldest Palestinian health institutions, are catastrophic.

The statement indicated that there are currently approximately two patients for every available bed, and the emergency department and wards are overcrowded, requiring doctors and medical personnel to treat the wounded and patients in the corridors, on the ground and in the open air. The number of wounded is increasing every hour, while patients suffer from enormous and unnecessary pain as medicines and painkillers run out. In addition, tens of thousands of displaced people have taken refuge in parking lots and hospital yards.

The statement stressed that doctors, nurses and other workers need more support, and the northern areas of Gaza cannot and should not be isolated or deprived of the delivery of humanitarian aid. Patients there cannot be denied the health care they are entitled to and urgently need, and aid must reach the entire Gaza Strip.

It pointed out that medical facilities are running out of supplies and fuel, and so far, fuel has not been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, including to Al-Shifa Hospital, for more than a month.

UNRWA and the World Health Organization renewed their urgent appeal for fuel to be delivered to humanitarian agencies in the Gaza Strip. Without fuel, hospitals and other essential facilities such as water desalination plants and bakeries will not be able to function, and more people are certain to die as a result.

They called for the protection of all medical facilities, workers, patients and wounded, for the continuous flow of humanitarian supplies and fuel on a large scale, and for safe and unimpeded access to deliver supplies to health facilities wherever they are, and they are in various parts of the Gaza Strip. We also call for medical evacuation of seriously injured patients.