GENEVA: A World Health Organization official in Gaza said on Tuesday the situation was deteriorating by the hour as Israeli bombing has intensified in the south of the Palestinian enclave around the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
“The situation is getting worse by the hour,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters via video link. “There’s intensified bombing going on all around, including here in the southern areas, Khan Younis and even in Rafah.”
Peeperkorn said the humanitarian aid reaching Gaza was “way too little” and said the WHO was deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the densely populated enclave as more people move further south to escape the bombing.
“I want to make this point very clear that we are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster,” he said.
Peeperkorn said WHO had complied with an Israeli order to remove supplies from warehouses in Khan Younis. He said WHO had been told the area would “most likely become an area of active combat in the coming days.”
“We want to make sure that we can actually deliver essential medical supplies,” he said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday appealed to Israel to withdraw the order. Israel denied asking for the evacuation of warehouses.
WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’
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WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’
- WHO representative in Gaza: Humanitarian aid reaching Gaza ‘way too little’
- WHO deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the enclave
US special envoys in Israel to discuss future of Gaza, sources tell Reuters
JERUSALEM: US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Israel on Saturday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly to discuss Gaza, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The US on Thursday announced plans for a “New Gaza” rebuilt from scratch, to include residential towers, data centers and seaside resorts, part of President Donald Trump’s push to advance an Israel-Hamas ceasefire shaken by repeated violations.
The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah border crossing — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.
Israel wants to restrict the number of Palestinians entering Gaza through the border crossing with Egypt to ensure that more are allowed out than in, three sources briefed on the matter said ahead of the border’s expected opening.
The border was supposed to have opened during the initial phase of Trump’s plan to end the war, under a ceasefire reached in October between Israel and Hamas.
The death toll in Gaza since October 7, 2023, now stands at 71,654, and the death toll since the October ceasefire at 481, according to data from Gaza’s health ministry on Saturday.
Earlier this month, Washington announced that the plan had now moved into the second phase, under which Israel is expected to withdraw troops further from Gaza, and Hamas is due to yield control of the territory’s administration.
The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.
Trump also said on Thursday that the United States has an “armada” heading toward Iran, but hoped he would not have to use it, as he renewed warnings to Tehran against killing protesters or restarting its nuclear program.
