WHO facing ‘near insurmountable challenges’ in Gaza aid delivery

The UN health agency has deplored the lack of access to Gaza for the delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance, amid intense bombardment in the southern part of the besieged Palestinian enclave.

“Delivering aid to Gaza continues to face near insurmountable challenges,” the World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said during a news conference on Wednesday in Geneva.

“We have the supplies, the teams and the plans in place. What we don’t have is access,” he said, stressing that the UN and its partners remained “completely ready” to deliver assistance to Gaza Palestinians.

Israeli authorities have repeatedly refused to allow UN aid teams to deliver desperately needed humanitarian relief inside Gaza, effectively cutting off hospitals and residents from lifesaving medical supplies.

“We call on Israel to approve requests from WHO and its partners to deliver humanitarian aid,” Ghebreyesus said.

Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, has repeatedly blamed the world body for failing to deliver supplies at a fast enough pace. Moshe Tetro, head of COGAT, on Wednesday denied any bottlenecks on the Israeli end preventing aid from reaching the enclave.

“The problem lies with the international organisations processing and receiving the aid,” he said, according to The Times of Israel.

Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, claimed instead that the UN has been operating within a “shrinking humanitarian space”. “There should be more avenues to get into Gaza, but also to work within Gaza,” he said, adding that humanitarian corridors were to be expected even in the absence of a ceasefire.