The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reiterated his call for the international community to take urgent steps to alleviate the grave peril facing the population of Gaza and jeopardize the ability of humanitarian workers to help people with terrible injuries, acute hunger, and at severe risk of disease.

According to the latest WHO assessments, Gaza has 13 partially functioning hospitals; 2 minimally functioning ones, and 21 that are not functioning at all. In WHO’s latest high-risk mission, its teams visited two hospitals in Gaza; Al-Shifa in the north and Al-Amal Palestine Red Crescent Society in the south to deliver supplies and assess needs on the ground, said WHO in a statement. “WHO’s ability to supply medicines, medical supplies, and fuel to hospitals is being increasingly constrained by the hunger and desperation of people en route to, and within, hospitals we reach,” said the statement.

The recent United Nations Security Council resolution appeared to provide hope of an improvement in humanitarian aid distribution within Gaza,” the WHO Director-General added. “However, based on WHO eyewitness accounts on the ground, the resolution is tragically yet to have an impact.” “What we urgently need right now is a ceasefire to spare civilians from further violence and begin the long road towards reconstruction and peace,” he said.