The World Health Organization said Tuesday the situation in Gaza is “getting worse by the hour,” according to Reuters, amid concerns about humanitarian aid in the region as hundreds of thousands of people are ordered to evacuate in southern Gaza.
A spokesperson for the organization said “we are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster.”
Richard Peeperkorn, a WHO official in Gaza, said the humanitarian aid reaching the region was “way too little,” adding the organization was concerned about Gaza’s health system as more people evacuate to escape bombings, according to Reuters.
Peeperkorn warned there is “intensified bombing” throughout Gaza, including in Rafah and Khan Younis, where WHO officials had been ordered to remove supplies after Israeli officials said the area would “most likely become an area of active combat in the coming days.”
Peeperkorn said “we will witness the same pattern” of what happened in northern Gaza, where a heavily bombed region was nearly cut off from humanitarian aid.
Thomas White, the director of affairs for the United Nation’s Palestinian agency, said Tuesday more than 600,000 people throughout Gaza had been ordered to evacuate, including about 500,000 people ordered to evacuate to Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.
Rafah—a city with a population of 280,000—“will not cope” with doubling its evacuee population, adding to about 470,000 people who were already displaced to the city, White said.
James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said areas in Gaza designated as safe by Israel did not meet basic requirements, according to Reuters, noting that lack of sanitation and shelter could result in a “perfect storm” for disease outbreaks.
“I want to make this point very clear that we are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster,” Peeperkorn said.
1.9 million. That’s the total number of people who have been internally displaced in Gaza since the war began between Israel and Hamas on October 7, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). This is more than 80% of Gaza’s population, UNRWA said.
The Israeli military called for more evacuations in southern Gaza earlier this week as it continues to move south, four days after fighting resumed in the region following a week-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Concern for humanitarian conditions in Gaza has intensified in recent weeks as more people are displaced because of the conflict. Lynn Hastings, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, said “nowhere is safe” in the region and that an “even more hellish scenario is about to unfold” where “humanitarian operations may not be able to respond,” NBC News reported. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also warned that the ceasefire would not guarantee adequate aid to the people of Gaza, suggesting it would be “impossible to satisfy all the dramatic needs of the population.”
Situation In Gaza ‘Getting Worse By The Hour’ – WHO (Reuters)