Technicians work on the process of a 3D-printed transparent facemask to treat burns of a Palestinian child affected by the war at a clinic run by the Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Gaza City. AFP
Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, the WHO's representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, said most of the hospitals and primary healthcare centres in the Gaza Strip were only partially operational, while none of the hospitals were fully functional.
"One of the key reasons these facilities are not functioning is because they are struggling with critical shortages of medical supplies," she told a press conference in Geneva.
She said part of the problem is Israel blocking the entry of items it argues are "dual use" -- items which could potentially be used for a military purpose.
"WHO has internationally recognised lists of essential medicines. That is what we are talking about," said Van der Weerdt.
"Essential medicines, essential supplies are essential.
"There should be no bureaucratic processes and access restrictions."
She gave multiple examples of medical equipment being held up, including a prefabricated hospital that has sat "waiting for months" in Jordan.
Without laboratory equipment, "we cannot diagnose diseases and detect potential disease outbreaks", she said.
"Without oxygen concentrators, let's just be honest -- there are critically ill patients that die."
A shaky ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and the resistance movement Hamas officially came into effect on October 10, 2025.
The first phase of the truce saw the release of the last Israeli captives in exchange for some Palestinians detained in Israel prisons.
But Israeli strikes continues in violation of the truce.
Van de Weerdt said that despite the ceasefire, Israel killed at least 880 Palestinians and injured more than 2,600 since it was declared.
The WHO has documented 22 Israeli attacks on healthcare in Gaza this year.
She said that more than 43,000 people in Gaza have life-changing injuries from the war, 10,000 of them are children.
"They require long-term rehabilitation, prosthetics and assistive devices, many of which face delays and restrictions on entry.
"What we manage to get in barely scratches the surface of what is needed," she said.
Israel has waged a genocidal war on the Strip since October 2023, killing at least 72,775 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 172,750 others. It has destroyed 90% of the Strip’s infrastructure, with the cost of Gaza reconstruction estimated at $70 billion.
Since the Gaza ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 11, 2025, Israel has killed 883 Palestinians and injured 2,648 others, according to WAFA.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in November 2025 endorsing the US-backed peace plan, which called for the full resumption of humanitarian aid.
The stipulations of Phase 1 of the ceasefire framework, originally brokered under a broader international peace initiative, legally mandated that Israel permit the unhindered daily entry of 600 to 800 humanitarian and commercial trucks, alongside vast quantities of fuel, medical supplies, and infrastructure equipment necessary to stave off famine and repair basic sanitation systems.
However, data and field updates from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Human Rights Watch, and local monitoring bodies indicate that Israel has systematically failed to respect these commitments.
International human rights organizations and medical agencies, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), actively accuse Israeli authorities of manufacturing an artificial deprivation crisis by utilizing food, medicine, and clean water as instruments of ongoing political pressure.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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