On Monday, Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative, spoke with UN News to describe the dire situation he witnessed at Al-Ahli Hospital prior to a recent attack, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by restrictions on movement that prevent thousands from receiving critical medical care outside Gaza.
“I visited Gaza several weeks ago and left in early March, just before aid was blocked and hostilities intensified,” he said.
During the temporary ceasefire, WHO teams were actively coordinating polio vaccinations and organizing medical evacuations. They also managed to stockpile essential medicines and healthcare supplies. “That ceasefire period was the only time we saw proper food supplies in Gaza,” Peeperkorn added.
Despite the devastation, he noted a brief sense of optimism. In areas like Rafah in the south and Jabalia in the north—previously reduced to rubble—residents and WHO staff returned to try and rebuild. Makeshift shelters appeared, small businesses reopened, and food variety briefly returned.
But the hope was short-lived. “Once the blockade resumed, food, clean water, and critical medical supplies rapidly dwindled,” he said. Though WHO had stockpiled some resources, supplies are now critically low. “We’ve completely run out of therapeutic milk, antibiotics for infections, trauma painkillers, insulin, oxygen tanks, even spare parts for ambulances.”
Just days before the attack on Al-Ahli Hospital, a medical professional there told WHO that the facility was already over capacity. As a key trauma center in northern Gaza, it was struggling to provide care under increasingly unsafe conditions. “They lacked basics like sterile surgical gowns, drapes, and gloves,” explained Peeperkorn. “Staff were even reusing gloves between surgeries. The lack of equipment meant operations took hours longer, raising the risk of complications, disability, or amputations.”
Although WHO has stockpiles at two southern Gaza warehouses, the organization has been unable to deliver supplies to the north. “The blockade must be lifted,” Peeperkorn urged. “We need reliable, unrestricted humanitarian corridors across Gaza. Humanitarian aid and workers must have unimpeded access, even during conflict.”
He also shared updates from WHO teams visiting Al-Shifa Hospital, now the primary trauma and surgical center in the north. The facility is overwhelmed and critically under-resourced. WHO is considering shifting some patients south for care, but the process is extremely complex under current conditions.
“The number of patients requiring evacuation is staggering,” Peeperkorn said. “We estimate that around 12,000 people need urgent medical evacuation, but since the blockade began, only 121 patients — including 73 children — have been successfully transferred out.”
He concluded with an urgent appeal: “We are calling for the immediate resumption of medical evacuations through all possible routes. This needs to happen now.”
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