United States: The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning, stating that there are only three more days left to run hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip with fuel following Israeli soldiers’ seizure of the Rafah border crossing.
Israel invaded the city of Rafah on Tuesday with tanks and ground forces, seizing control of the adjoining Egyptian border, which serves as the main entry point for humanitarian supplies into the besieged Palestinian area.
The fuel that the United Nations health agency had anticipated being permitted entry on Wednesday has been banned, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Humanitarian aid into Gaza is regulated by Israeli authorities.
“The closure of the border crossing continues to prevent the UN from bringing fuel. Without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop. Border closures are also impeding delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Tedros said on X.
“Hospitals in the south of Gaza only have three days of fuel left, which means services may soon come to a halt,” Tedros added.
Israel claims that thousands of Hamas fighters are holed up in Rafah, and it has vowed to launch a large offensive to destroy them. However, the city also serves as a haven for over 1.4 million Palestinians who, following Israel’s earlier orders to evacuate, escaped fighting in the coastal enclave further north.
They have been forced into improvised shelters and tent camps, where they have experienced food, water, and medication shortages. About half of all births in Gaza occur at Rafah’s primary maternity facility, which has ceased accepting new patients, according to a report from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to the news agency Reuters.
Prior to Israel’s entry into the city, the UNFPA reported that the hospital, Al-Helal Al-Emairati Maternity Hospital, was managing roughly 85 of the 180 births that took place in Gaza per day.
The head of Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, Marwan Homs, informed Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP) that the hospital is currently closed and that all employees have been told to leave.
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