WHO says no security guarantees for aid deliveries to hospitals in northern Gaza

GENEVA (AA) – While limited aid delivery began last weekend to the blockaded Gaza Strip, there are no security guarantees for getting aid to hospitals in the northern part of the strip, the World Health Organization has warned.

Underlining the “huge risk” for people delivering relief, Rick Brennan, WHO regional emergencies director for the Eastern Mediterranean region, told a press briefing in Geneva, “We do not have security guarantees to deliver aid to Al-Shifa Hospital” – the region’s largest hospital – or “other hospitals in the north.”

So delivering aid to that part of the Gaza Strip is currently not possible, Brennan said.

Last week Israel ordered the northern Gaza Strip evacuated, despite international aid groups saying making over a million people move south would cause a humanitarian disaster. Many tens of thousands of residents of the north, including the ill, disabled, elderly and poor, have been unable to make the journey.

The UN says the strip needs around 100 relief trucks per day to address the growing humanitarian needs there.

On October 7 Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas into Israeli border towns. Israel also put the territory’s 2.3 million residents under total siege, blockading food, fuel and medical supplies.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire” to ease the “epic human suffering.”

At least 5,749 Palestinians have been killed, many of the children and minors.