Gaza: Life-saving medicines blocked as killing continues, disease gains ground

Recently returned from a visit to the devastated enclave, Dr. Renee Van de Weerdt, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva, "Nothing prepares you for Gaza."

"I thought going in the second time would make things easier. But it just doesn't," she said.

Dr. Van de Weerdt underscored that since the October 2025 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, at least 880 people have been killed in the Strip and more than 2,600 injured.

"There is perhaps less fire, but the violence continues," she said. "We hear bombs nearby. There is gunfire every day."

Half of hospitals 'partially functional'

The WHO representative painted a dark picture of the health situation in the enclave, noting that some 22 attacks on health have been reported in Gaza this year and that barely half of the hospitals are "partially functional", while not a single hospital can be considered fully operational.

"One of the key reasons these facilities are not functioning is because they are struggling with critical shortages of medical supplies," she explained.

Vital supplies and equipment are blocked on the other side of the Strip's borders, Dr. Van de Weerdt said, with devastating effects for the health of the population.

"In Jordan, there is a prefabricated hospital waiting for months to enter Gaza," she said. "Laboratory equipment, reagents, oxygen concentrators, orthopedic items, not luxury items. These are essential items…needed to make health facilities and the health system work."

Without laboratory equipment and reagents, "we cannot diagnose diseases and detect potential disease outbreaks," the WHO representative insisted.

Blind to outbreaks

"We're talking about hantavirus, we're talking about Ebola virus. This is not luxury. This is equipment that we need to save lives, to detect diseases, to alert the world about potential outbreaks and make sure that people don't die."

"You can only imagine with the horrific living conditions, overcrowding, rodents, lack of water and sanitation, that this is urgently, urgently needed," she stressed.

Dr. Van de Weerdt explained that some items are banned under Israeli regulations as "dual use" items, which are considered to have potential military uses. She pushed back on applying the qualification to internationally recognised lists of essential medicines.

Prosthetic limbs considered suspect

Prosthetic limbs, for instance, are considered dual-use. Some 5,000 amputees in Gaza are waiting not only for prosthetics but also for corrective surgery to make sure that that limb can be fitted appropriately.

"That surgery for the moment can't take place in Gaza," she said. "So, these unfortunate people need to be on a waiting list to leave."

WHO has supported the health authorities on organizing medical evacuations for thousands of patients to more than 30 countries.

Since its February reopening the Rafah crossing has been a key gateway through which patients can leave the Strip to Egypt, Dr. Van de Weerdt said, while from the Kerem Shalom crossing, which can be used up to once a week, patients can go "through a very long and complicated pathway to Jordan."

The WHO representative said there are extreme difficulties associated with medical evacuations for patients and their families.

"Often only one or two family members can leave and conditions for return are not always there," she said. "We keep advocating for medical evacuations for very specialised cases. But we also want to make sure that an increasing number of the thousands and thousands of people that need specialized care in Gaza today… can be treated in Gaza."

A key provider of health services in Gaza is the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, although Israeli parliamentary bans on its activity have largely complicated its operations.

UNRWA's Director of Health Dr Akihiro Seita told reporters in Geneva that last year, the agency provided 4.5 million medical consultations in the enclave, or some 40 per cent of the total volume of medical consultations.

UNRWA irreplacable

WHO's Dr Van de Weerdt insisted that "Nobody can replace what UNRWA is doing."

Dr Seita deplored the fact that "because of the Knesset bills against UNRWA" the agency is unable to bring medicines inside Gaza and the West Bank and lost two of its East Jerusalem health centres earlier this year, which used to serve 11,000 patients annually.

The UNRWA official underscored the fact that almost 400 of the agency's staff were killed in the Gaza war. Thousands continue to assist desperate Gazans and face horrific conditions on the ground.

"Many of our staff still live in tents," he said. "One of the staff told me, which I['ll] never forget… 'I feel like I've become an orphan of the world. No one's taking care of us. They forgot us.'"