WHO ready to bring aid into Gaza, but 20 trucks ‘a drop in the ocean of need’

Five trucks of medical supplies are ready at the border between Gaza and Egypt, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, welcoming Israel’s announcement that it will not block the entry of aid into the Palestinian territory.

“Our trucks are loaded and ready to go,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. He said he hoped the supplies would be delivered as soon as the Rafah crossing opened, “hopefully tomorrow.”

The delivery of aid is set to be the first after Israel said it would impose a “total blockade” on the narrow Gaza Strip that is home to 2.3 million people, cutting electricity supplies and halting flows of food and fuel, in response to a devastating attack from Hamas on Israeli territory on Oct. 7.

5:41 Israel lets Egypt deliver some aid to Gaza

There have also been heavy Israeli air strikes in the war with Hamas, that has killed thousands, including many civilians. The UN has warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the impoverished enclave, where more than half the population lives in poverty amid a 16-year-old Israeli-led blockade that Palestinians said had already undermined health institutions and crippled the economy.

The WHO’s emergencies chief Mike Ryan said the UN agency would do everything in its power, along with the Egypt and Palestinian Red Crescent societies, to ensure the aid reached those who need it in Gaza rather than getting diverted. The WHO supplies are part of an expected convoy of 20 trucks.

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“Twenty trucks is a drop in the ocean of need right now in Gaza,” Ryan added. “But hopefully this trickle will turn into a river of aid that will flow in the coming days.”

He said the medical supplies including wound dressings, anesthetics, and painkillers, among other items.

The WHO has previously warned that the healthcare system in Gaza is on the brink of collapse, with emergency rooms operating in darkness to keep power for essential services, doctors forced to operate without anesthetic, and some life-saving procedures – like dialysis – at risk of stopping.

It said 3,500 people have died in Gaza since the escalation, with 12,000 injured.