Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the cessation of hostilities, but said “the crisis is far from over and the needs are enormous.”
He highlighted the toll of months of conflict: more than 170,000 people were injured, including 5,000 amputees and 3,600 people with severe burns. At least 42,000 women require long-term rehabilitation, and every month 4,000 women give birth ‘in unsafe conditions’.
Psychological wounds
“The destruction was physical, but also psychological,” he said. “It is estimated that one million people need access to mental health care.”
Tedros described a system on the brink of collapse. “There are no fully functioning hospitals in Gaza, and only 14 of the 36 are functioning at all” he said, citing “critical shortages of essential medicines, equipment and health workers.”
Since the ceasefire came into effect two weeks ago, WHO teams have expanded support, sending medical supplies to hospitals, deploying emergency medical teams and facilitating evacuations.
“Yesterday we supported the evacuation of 41 patients and 145 companions to different countries” said Tedros, thanking more than twenty countries that have received evacuees.
700 dead await evacuation
But with 15,000 patients outside Gaza still needing treatment – including 4,000 children – he stressed that “more than 700 patients have died while waiting to be evacuated.”
He urged the reopening of the Rafah crossing and the restoration of medical deployments to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to enable urgent care and expand relief efforts.
“Although the flow of aid has increased, it is still only a fraction of what is needed,” Tedros said, noting that “a significant amount of aid has been built up in Al-Arish in Egypt” in anticipation of the reopening of Rafah at the southern tip of the enclave.
The UN 60-day ceasefire plan seeks $45 million to maintain essential health servicesstrengthen disease prevention and early warning systems, coordinate health care partners and support reconstruction.
However, rebuilding Gaza’s health care system will cost “at least $7 billion,” he said. “WHO was in Gaza before the war started, we have been there all the time and we will remain there to help the people of Gaza build a healthier, safer and fairer future.”
Assistance and access
In New York, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the UN and partners were stepping up aid efforts. A UN team recently reached the Az Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City – inaccessible before the ceasefire – where more than 200 returning families live in “extremely poor” conditions.
Residents walk up to two kilometers to reach the nearest water point and are in urgent need of food, clean water, hygiene items and cash assistance for winter essentials.
Meanwhile, UN agencies continue to provide essential assistance. The World Food Program (WFP) is distributing fortified snacks to schoolchildren, while more than 140 trucks carrying food, hygiene kits and emergency shelter items entered Gaza earlier this week.
Children’s agency UNICEF has provided 20 trucks of baby diapers and a hub for crisis operations UNOPS distributed nearly 160,000 liters of fuel for humanitarian operations.
“The ceasefire provides a lifeline,” Tedros said, “but Gaza’s health care system – and its people – are still fighting for survival.”
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