UN warns Gaza's health system under strain amid supply shortages

New York — The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the health system in the Gaza Strip remains under enormous pressure, making it essential to quickly open access for essential supplies. In its daily briefing on Thursday, 21 May, OCHA said the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 22 attacks on health facilities and medical care services in Gaza, resulting in fatalities or affecting medical transport and health facilities. The office added that humanitarian partners are still struggling to access water, with three out of four families now relying on water delivered by truck. Several aid organisations are distributing around 24,000 cubic metres of water daily through about 2,000 distribution points. Separately, WHO said that in the first four months of this year, more than a third of requests for medical treatment permissions for patients in East Jerusalem and Israel were denied or delayed. According to WHO, current permit approvals are far below pre-war levels, when more than two-thirds of medical treatment requests were granted before the war began in October 2023.