Source: United Nations (video statements)
“Overall, little improvement on the services,” said the World Health Organization’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, warning that only half of Gaza’s hospitals are even partly functional. Speaking to reporters via video link from Gaza, Rik Peeperkorn said damage, access restrictions and shortages continue to cripple the health system despite limited signs of recovery.
Briefing the UN press corps in New York, Peeperkorn said he had visited several key facilities in recent days, including Nasser Medical Complex and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s Rehabilitation Hospital in Khan Younis, as well as Al-Shifa, Al-Rantisi and Al-Ahli Arab hospitals in Gaza City, and a primary health care site in Beit Lahia in the north. “So overall, little improvement on the services,” he said, noting that “50% of hospitals, 18 out of 36, and 43% for primary health care centers, 84 from the 195, are partly functional.”
He said access constraints remain a major obstacle. The Indonesian Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia are “currently beyond what you call the ceasefire line, so-called yellow line,” he said, while Kamal Adwan Hospital sits “a little bit almost on this yellow line.” Peeperkorn added that WHO missions to reach Kamal Adwan to establish a primary health care facility “have been, unfortunately, until now, denied.”
Despite the challenges, he pointed to limited progress in Gaza City, where Al-Shifa Hospital has resumed some services. “Shifa Hospital is working again as a partially functional tertiary care hospital,” he said. “Ten operation theaters are functional, and outpatient departments are partially functional.” He added that the hospital hopes to expand capacity, saying it “need and want to expand to 700 beds.”
Peeperkorn said visits to multiple facilities highlighted both hardship and resilience. “What is heartening to see in all of the hospitals we went to,” he said, “is the rehabilitation work going on.” He described “an immense resilience” driven by “local ingenuity and repurposing of materials from damaged and destroyed buildings,” even as he stressed that building materials remain scarce and costly. “By now one would expect that building materials, cement, etc. would have entered Gaza,” he said, adding that while conditions are extremely difficult, “it’s happening, and I would say that is good news.”
At the same time, shortages of medicines and equipment persist. Peeperkorn said hospital staff consistently told WHO they had expected improvements following the ceasefire. “They said, we expect now there is a ceasefire that shortages of essential medicines, medical supplies, and also spare parts for imaging medical equipment, they will see a flow of these, and unfortunately, not yet,” he said. He warned that “approximately 50 percent of the 650 essential medicines are close to zero stock or have less than three months’ supply.”
He also highlighted worsening living conditions as winter rains intensify. “The rainy winter clearly has set in, making people even more vulnerable,” Peeperkorn said, describing “thousands and thousands of makeshift tents amidst this rain and wind.” He said shelter conditions remain “deplorable” and stressed that “way more shelter material and tents need to get in.”