WHO: Continued flow of medical aid to Gaza essential

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The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday it was "essential" to ensure a continuous flow of medical aid to the Gaza Strip as the organization's trucks headed towards the border.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in this regard that the WHO, a UN agency based in Geneva, had just sent ten trucks to the Israeli border crossing of Kerem Shalom. These vehicles departed from El-Arish, Egypt, loaded with "essential medicines, laboratory equipment, and water analysis equipment," he explained.

Two more trucks carrying medical aid, as well as 12 pallets of blood products, are expected to arrive on Thursday. According to a post by the WHO Director-General on the social network X , "all WHO deliveries will then be sent to Gaza, as well as three trucks carrying medical supplies from partners."

. @WHO has moved 10 trucks from Al-Arish in Egypt to the Kerem Shalom crossing for #Gaza , carrying essential medicines, laboratory and water testing supplies.

Two additional trucks with medical supplies along with 12 pallets of blood products are expected tomorrow.

All WHO…

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) July 30, 2025

"The health needs in the Gaza Strip are immense. A continuous flow of medical supplies is essential," he stressed.

"We continue to call for sustainable, safe and unhindered access to medical aid in the Gaza Strip, as well as a ceasefire," he stressed, before concluding: " Peace is the best medicine ."

Israel imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip on March 2, following the failure of negotiations to suspend hostilities. In late May, the country began authorizing the resumption of aid at a modest level, despite warnings of the risk of famine, which has worsened since then.

The top international authority on food crises warned Tuesday that "the worst-case famine scenario is currently unfolding in the Gaza Strip," predicting "widespread deaths" if immediate action is not taken.

According to the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) — a monitoring system used by international humanitarian agencies to determine the level of famine in a country or region — Gaza has been on the brink of famine for two years and Israel's "increasingly stringent blockades" have "dramatically worsened" the situation.

This week, Israel instituted daily pauses in military operations in certain areas of the Gaza Strip and opened safe routes to allow United Nations agencies and other humanitarian organizations to distribute food in this territory of more than two million people.

The World Health Organization says that in the Gaza Strip, airstrikes and a lack of medical supplies, food, water and fuel have “ nearly exhausted ” an underfunded health system, with many hospitals out of service and others functioning only minimally.

The provision of essential health services—from maternity care to the treatment of chronic diseases—has been “severely compromised,” the WHO laments.

A spokesperson for the UN agency told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that nine of its trucks entered the Gaza Strip on June 25, four on June 28, 11 on July 8, and another six on July 20. "No trucks have been looted since we resumed supplies," he said.

The ongoing war in Gaza was triggered by attacks led by the Palestinian extremist group Hamas on October 7, 2023, in southern Israel, which left around 1,200 dead and more than two hundred hostages.

Israel's retaliation has already resulted in more than 60,000 deaths, the destruction of almost all of Gaza's infrastructure, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

Israel has also imposed a blockade on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave, where more than 140 people have died from malnutrition and starvation, most of them children.