The population across the country still lacks proper medical care nearly two weeks after the most recent ceasefire began, the .
Medicines and medical equipment, which had been blocked for months, are now beginning to arrive, Rick Pieperkorn, the WHO representative in the Israeli-occupied territories, told a news conference in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.
However, since Israel has only opened two border crossings, it is difficult to meet the demand, he said.
WHO figures
According to the WHO, only 14 of 36 hospitals in the coastal enclave are partially operational, as are 64 of 181 health centers and 109 of 359 treatment rooms.
Major hospitals, such as the European Hospital in Gaza, are located in the area still under Israeli control and patients cannot access them.
The WHO states that it has all the necessary equipment in the area. Israel controls access to the Gaza Strip and would have to give permission for aid to be distributed in the sealed off area.
Until now, each shipment is inspected separately and a separate application needs to be submitted for each product. Piperkorn said it took the WHO two and a half years to bring eight portable X-ray machines into the Gaza Strip.
The WHO has drawn up a list of essential medicines and equipment and is appealing to Israeli authorities to give a blanket license rather than review each distribution. He says there are only two scanners in the Gaza Strip and more are urgently needed.
