The World Health Organization Delivers Urgent Medical Supplies to Gaza Amid Escalating Humanitarian Crisis

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced today, Saturday, August 2, the arrival of trucks carrying urgent medicines and medical supplies to the sector, through the World Health Organization, to distribute them to hospitals suffering from severe shortages in supplies. The ministry confirmed in an official statement that the shipment does not include any food items, at a time when the sector is facing an unprecedented hunger crisis.

The statement said: "We urge citizens, dignitaries, families, and relevant parties to make efforts to protect the convoy, to avoid any harm to the trucks, and to ensure their safe arrival at hospitals to save the lives of patients and the injured."

The ministry indicated that "the items expected to arrive are of great importance and urgent need to continue providing medical care for the injured and patients and to save lives."

This announcement comes days after relief trucks were looted upon entering through the Kerem Shalom crossing, as the specter of famine worsens under the tightened Israeli blockade. It coincided with the airdrop of food aid over Gaza, in which several countries participated, including Germany, Spain, France, Jordan, Egypt, and the UAE, according to what the Israeli army announced on Friday.

For his part, Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, warned that "air-dropping aid costs at least 100 times more than transporting the same quantity of materials by road." He added that "much larger quantities can be transported by trucks," pointing to the risks faced by civilians due to aid falling on them.

It is worth noting that Gaza has been suffering since October 2023 from a suffocating Israeli blockade, despite some humanitarian efforts such as those carried out by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began distributing aid through multiple points last May, although the process faced chaos and disturbances.

Israeli forces continue to fire on civilians as they attempt to obtain aid, resulting in hundreds of casualties over the past months, according to United Nations reports.