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Today's Paper | May 12, 2026

Published 22 Jun, 2024 08:05am

Israel ‘pause’ in Gaza had no impact on aid supplies: WHO

A daily “pause” the Israeli military declared in Gaza to facilitate aid flows has had no impact on deliveries of badly needed supplies, AFP reports according to the UN’s health agency.

“We did not see an impact on the humanitarian supplies coming in since that […] unilateral announcement of this technical pause,” said Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in the Palestinian territories.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned in a statement that “without a significant refill of medical supplies in the coming days” the NGO may have to “stop or drastically reduce some of its medical activities in Gaza”.

Dr Thanos Gargavanis, a trauma surgeon and emergency officer at the WHO, said the UN in Gaza was trying to “operate in an unworkable environment”.

“We have patients with severe burns, open fractures, and we don’t even have enough painkillers to alleviate their suffering,” said MSF medical coordinator Guillemette Thomas.

Thomas said that in Nasser and Al Aqsa hospitals, MSF teams had been forced to reduce the “frequency of dressing changes for patients with severe burns due to the lack of sterile compress gauzes”, which could lead to more infections.

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