The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening by the day. The World Health Organization is warning that there’s an extreme risk that disease will spread among Palestinians in the territory.
“We’ve recorded already more than 70,000, 72,000 cases of acute respiratory infections,” said Dr. Richard Peeperkorn of the World Health Organization (WHO). “44,000 cases of diarrhea, 808 cases of chickenpox, 15,000 skin rashes, the scabies, lice, and we also got patients now of hepatitis A.”
The Israel-Hamas war has affected Gaza’s health system, as most of the enclave does not have access to clean water, food, basic health care, or fuel. Plus, Palestinians who have fled their homes are crowding in shelters.
“We know that the health system is on its knees and that currently 65% — that is 47 out of 72 primary care facilities — are not functioning and the ones which are functioning are partly functioning, so to say more than 70%, almost 70% of the hospitals are currently nonfunctioning — 25 out of the 36,” Peeperkorn said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirms 23,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza Wednesday, Nov. 15. The shipment of fuel was the first since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.
Israel National Security Adviser Tzachai Hanegbi said Israel has agreed to allow two fuel trucks per day into Gaza, however, that fuel is only to be used for U.N. relief trucks that are distributing humanitarian aid to the people Gaza.
WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is once again calling for a cease-fire, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that a cease-fire will not happen unless Hamas releases their hostages.
“I said that we would have a temporary cease-fire,” Netanyahu said on CBS News Thursday evening. “Only if we have our hostages back, and I haven’t changed what I said.”
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirm to have found the body of a second Israeli hostage, Cpl. Noa Marciano, 19, in a building near the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza
Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had “strong indications” that Hamas was holding hostages in a military facility under Al-Shifa. Netanyahu’s statements follow the release of a video in which Israeli soldiers claim to have uncovered evidence of a Hamas tunnel shaft within the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza.
“Hamas was using the patients in that hospital as a human shield,” Netanyahu said. “We found a command-and-control center, military communications coded equipment. We found bombs, we found weapons, and we also found terror tunnels in the hospital compound.”
Journalists with The New York Times accompanied IDF soldiers into a portion of the Al-Shifa complex about 48 hours after Israeli soldiers stormed the hospital. According to the report, the journalists were shown a “stone-and-concrete shaft on its grounds with a staircase descending into the earth.”
Israeli officials are aware that they are under growing pressure to produce evidence that Hamas used Al-Shifa as a terror command center. However, it could be days before troops make their way into the shaft as they fear it has traps.
U.S. spokesperson for the National Security Council, John Kirby, also announced Thursday that the council will not share intelligence on Hamas’ command center as it is still monitoring the status of hostages.