Gaza - New York: Europe and the Arabs
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 104 Palestinians were killed and 160 others were injured between February 22 and 23, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at a time when intense Israeli bombardment from the air, land and sea is reported to continue in most parts of the Gaza Strip. According to a bulletin Daily United Nations news, a copy of which we received this Saturday morning via email
In its update issued yesterday, Friday, on the situation in Gaza, the office stated that the total number of deaths in Gaza amounted to no less than 29,514 Palestinians, while 69,616 Palestinian injuries have been recorded since last October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
He added that on February 22, Israeli forces reportedly launched air strikes on residential buildings, especially in Deir al-Balah and Rafah, without warning, killing and wounding several people from the same family, including children.
Aid for pregnant and breastfeeding women
Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported that more than 150 of its facilities continue to host people internally displaced by the conflict in Gaza, with shelters severely overcrowded. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs quoted UNRWA as saying that as of this week, only seven health centers out of 23 in Gaza are still operating, while only one center is still operating in the north.
UNRWA added that approximately 600 health care workers continue to work in the seven centers that are still in service, as last Monday they provided more than 11,000 medical consultations, while employees in shelters and in the newly established medical points in the Al-Mawasi area provided, As displaced people flock from Khan Yunis, more than 8,000 additional medical consultations took place.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the United Nations Population Fund continues to support pregnant and lactating women in Gaza. He added that in the next month alone, about 5,500 women are expected to give birth in the Strip, with little or no access to medical assistance. Moreover, there are about 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women who are at high risk of malnutrition.
UNFPA reported that, where access was permitted, it had distributed vital medicines and equipment to health facilities, including the Emirates Crescent Hospital in Rafah. This aid included maternity, reproductive and postnatal health supplies, in addition to dignity supplies.

A very difficult task
From Gaza, Christopher Black, from the World Health Organization, spoke at the bi-weekly press conference of United Nations agencies in Geneva, about his participation this week in three missions to Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis.
Speaking via video near the city of Rafah, Black said that reaching the hospital was very difficult due to the fighting surrounding it. He added that teams from the World Health Organization and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs evacuated 51 patients in critical condition, noting that the process of evacuating patients "was very difficult."
He reported that the hospital corridors were crowded with patients and were barely lit, and patients had to be carried on stretchers down multiple flights of stairs. The UN official spoke about the courage of the doctors and medical staff who stayed with the patients, and the Palestinian Red Crescent, which worked with the World Health Organization and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to evacuate the patients.
Black explained that among the 51 patients who were evacuated, there were 10 children and 21 women. This comes at a time when the World Health Organization said yesterday, Thursday, that it had finalized an agreement this week to deliver health supplies and medicines, including insulin, to 1.5 million people in Gaza through a temporary air bridge between the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Multiple flights are scheduled, with the first flight successfully arriving in Egypt on Wednesday.
The World Health Organization warned that with the health system in Gaza hanging by a thread, deliveries of supplies to and through Gaza must be facilitated urgently.