GENEVA, April 24, 2026 (WAFA) – The World Health Organization announced on Friday that rebuilding and rehabilitating Gaza’s health system requires $10 billion in investment over five years.
Addressing a press briefing in Geneva from Jerusalem, Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, WHO Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said that damages to the health sector alone were estimated at 1.4 billion US dollars. More than 1,800 health facilities had been partially or completely destroyed, from big hospitals to smaller primary health care centers, clinics, pharmacies and laboratories.
“Destroyed buildings and mountains of accumulated waste had created ideal breeding grounds for rodents and pests. 80 percent of 1,600 displacement sites had frequent, visible, rodent and pest presence; over 80% of these displacement sites reported skin infections, such as rabies, lice, and bed bugs,” She added.
She noted that despite these challenges, efforts to boost the health system in Gaza were moving forward. WHO had thus completed a 128-bed extension at Al-Shifa Hospital.
She stressed, however, the need to protect health care workers and ensure unhindered access for medical supplies to the Strip.
“However, for saving life to have an impact, health and health care workers needed to be protected; and essential medicines and supplies must enter Gaza, including with the removal of bureaucratic processes and access restrictions on globally recognized essential medicines and supplies.”
Answering questions from journalists regarding medical evacuations, Van de Weerdt said these were a complicated process from a security and logistics point of view, but first and foremost from a patients’ rights point of view: patients and their families had the right to be treated where they lived, and that meant medical supplies must enter Gaza.
“Patients could leave Gaza to go to hospitals in East Jerusalem or in the West Bank: to do so, they would leave via the Rafah border crossing, going into Egypt and from there to other countries, now recently also back to Jordan. The last medical evacuation took place on 23 April, through Rafah, for 47 patients and 86 companions.”
K.F.
