WHO delivers its first medical aid to Gaza since March 2

GENEVA (AFP): The World Health Organization said Thursday that it had delivered its first medical shipment into Gaza since March 2, adding though that the nine truckloads were “a drop in the ocean.”

Wednesday’s shipment of supplies, plasma and blood will be distributed among hospitals in the Palestinian territory in the coming days, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

Israel imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip on March 2. More than two months later, it began allowing some food in, but no other aid items until now.

Tedros said nine trucks carrying essential medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma were delivered via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, “without any looting incident, despite the high-risk conditions along the route.”

“These supplies will be distributed to priority hospitals in the coming days,” Tedros said.

“The blood and plasma were delivered to Nasser Medical Complex’s cold storage facility for onward distribution to hospitals facing critical shortages, amid a growing influx of injuries, many linked to incidents at food distribution sites.”

Last week the WHO said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were minimally to partially functional, with the rest unable to function at all.

Tedros said four WHO trucks were still at Kerem Shalom and more were on their way toward Gaza.

“However, these medical supplies are only a drop in the ocean. Aid at scale is essential to save lives,” he said.

“WHO calls for the immediate, unimpeded and sustained delivery of health aid into Gaza through all possible routes.”

Israel began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May following its more than two-month total blockade, but distribution has been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a new US- and Israel-backed food distribution system, began handing out food in Gaza on May 26.

But the UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF — an officially private effort with opaque funding — over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

Israel is pressing its bombardment of the territory in a military offensive it says is aimed at defeating the militant group Hamas, whose unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.