UN refugee agency warns of critical health care shortages in Gaza

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) issued a stark warning on Thursday about the urgent need for health care in the Gaza Strip.

Severe shortages of essential medicines and fuel are hampering life-saving operations in the region, it said.

"People in Gaza desperately need healthcare. Only a fraction of UNRWA health centers are operational," the agency said on X.

"Safe and sustained aid access can't wait any longer," it added.

The agency also noted that its teams in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, continue to serve families, "but a severe shortage of medicine and fuel is hampering lifesaving operations."

After a handful of agency staffers were accused this January of being involved in attacks on Israel, several countries cut off its funding. While encouraging an impartial investigation of the claims, the UNRWA warned that cutting off its funding endangered vital, life-saving services to millions of Palestinians, especially amid the months-long Israeli onslaught and blockade on Gaza.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 37,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 86,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.