Five United Nations agencies warned that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip had become catastrophic, and confirmed that hospitals could no longer accommodate the wounded, while Turkey announced that it was considering establishing field hospitals in Al-Arish and Rafah in Egypt to treat the injured and sick from the Strip.

The five agencies - the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Population Fund - said in a joint statement that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was miserable before the current war, and today it has become catastrophic.

She stressed that "children are dying at an alarming rate, (and are) deprived of their right to protection, food, water and medical care." She said that Gaza's hospitals are crowded with wounded, and that civilians face great difficulty in accessing basic food supplies.

In their statement, the five UN agencies called on the international community to make more efforts to help the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Yesterday, Saturday, the first humanitarian aid convoy entered the sector, which has been besieged by the Israeli occupation since 2007, including 20 trucks coming through the Rafah crossing. But this number is very small and is considered a drop in the ocean of humanitarian needs in Gaza, according to the United Nations, which wants 100 trucks to enter daily to provide relief to the residents of the Strip (2.2 million people), who have been subjected to continuous Israeli bombing for more than two weeks.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday, Saturday, during the “peace summit” in Cairo, “The people of Gaza need much more. It is necessary to deliver aid in large quantities.”

Aid and a Turkish medical team

In a related context, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that his country will send a Turkish presidential plane to Egypt this Sunday morning loaded with medicines and medical supplies as part of his country’s aid to the residents of Gaza.

Koja explained in a post on the “X” platform (formerly Twitter) that the plane is loaded with medicines and medical supplies to help the residents of Gaza, and on board is a medical team consisting of 20 specialized doctors.

The Turkish minister indicated that he held the necessary discussions with his Egyptian counterpart, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, to transfer aid directed to the residents of Gaza through Egyptian territory.

He stated that the Turkish medical team will work with Egyptian officials to inventory urgent medicines and medical supplies for the residents of Gaza.

Koca stated that the Turkish medical team will study with the Egyptian side the possibility of establishing field hospitals at Al-Arish Airport and at the Rafah border crossing to treat injured Palestinians crossing Rafah into Egypt.

He said that Turkey intends to send the necessary equipment to establish field hospitals and ambulances via a private ship to Egypt, after the necessary preparations are completed.

The Turkish medical team also plans to complete preparations for delivering medicines and medical equipment to the relevant authorities in order to deliver them to those affected in the Gaza Strip.

Indian aid

Also in the context of international aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, India announced on Sunday that it had sent about 38 tons of humanitarian aid to Sinai in Egypt, allocated for Palestinian civilians in the besieged Strip, according to the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A source in the Indian Foreign Ministry explained that the humanitarian aid includes medicines, surgical supplies, tents, hygiene supplies, and water purification tablets, among other materials.

The Israeli occupation has imposed a stifling siege on Gaza for more than two weeks, depriving it of water, electricity, food and medicine. It is also intensifying its raids on the Strip, where 4,651 of its residents were martyred, including more than 1,800 children and 976 women, in addition to wounding more than 13,000.

Yesterday, Saturday, the first humanitarian aid convoy entered Gaza since the beginning of the war, after an Egyptian-American-Israeli agreement. The convoy included 20 trucks loaded with medicines, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food, to be distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

However, UN and Palestinian bodies stated that the aid allowed to enter only meets a small part of the needs of the Gaza Strip, and demanded that more humanitarian aid be allowed to enter.

The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouthi, said that the Strip needs 7,000 trucks, and added, “What will 20 trucks do for the Gaza Strip, which needs 500 trucks daily? The current deficit in food, medicine, and electricity since October 7 can only be covered by what is not needed.” "Less than 7 thousand trucks."