The World Health Organization said delays in securing approval for humanitarian shipments into Gaza are contributing to chronic shortages of medical supplies, with none of the enclave's hospitals currently fully operational.
Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, said the health situation in Gaza "remains utterly dire".
"Not enough humanitarian aid is entering Gaza, and definitely not enough to allow for a meaningful expansion and restoration of health services," she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Jerusalem.
Van de Weerdt said Israel's approval system for medical and humanitarian supplies had become a major bottleneck.
"It is laborious, time-consuming, with no guaranteed results," she said.
Two-three month clearance time
According to WHO analysis, large quantities of medical supplies wait a median of 74 days for clearance. If approval is not granted, "than we start that lengthy, cumbersome process all over again", she said.
She added that the approval process was subject to frequent changes, with new regulations being introduced.
Van de Weerdt said standard health kits used worldwide had some of the lowest approval rates, while X-ray machines, sterilisation equipment and spare parts for CT scanners and other essential machinery "get rejected regularly".
Prosthetics repeatedly rejected
"In just the last six months alone, one shipment of prosthetics and assistive devices was rejected four separate times," she said.
Medicines move "relatively well", however, with nearly 87% approved and only 1% rejected, she added.
"It's not one single blockage. It's a system, layered with delay after delay... and on the other side of every one of these delays is a patient who is waiting," she said.
"We need the unimpeded and predicable entry of humanitarian and health supplies into Gaza, at scale."
Source: AFP
