The escalated situation between Israel and Hamas on October 7 has led to catastrophic results in northern Gaza. The World Health Organization (WHO) described growing desperation and starving people stripping an aid truck of supplies over the weekend. WHO and its partners delivered aid, including fuel, to the devastated Al-Shifa hospital, once Gaza's biggest and most advanced medical facility. The situation observed during the December 23 mission was one of rising desperation due to acute hunger, prompting partners to demand immediate scale-up of food and water to ensure population health and stability.

Relentless hostilities and massive numbers of wounded people have brought the capacities of Al-Shifa to its knees, according to WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The hospital is currently only able to provide the most basic of first aid, and it has suffered significant damage, with its oxygen plant destroyed. The facility is also providing refuge to around 50,000 displaced people, further exacerbating the situation. Sean Casey, a WHO Emergency Medical Teams coordinator, described overflowing surgery wards and the inability to evaluate the hospital's operating theatres due to people inside who are unwilling to open the door.

The dire food shortages are forcing people into horrid states of hunger, leading some to take supplies from delivery trucks out of desperation. WHO warned that the dire situation at Al-Shifa is a microcosm of the nightmare playing out across Gaza, with drastic shortages of medicines, food, power, water, and above all, safety imperiling the population. The situation is dire in other hospitals in Gaza as well, with shortages of fuel, food, water, oxygen, antibiotics, and anesthesia affecting maternity, trauma, and emergency care. WHO Chief Tedros reiterated the call for a ceasefire and stressed the need for sustained humanitarian access. The immediate scale-up of food and water is essential to ensure population health and stability amid the deepening crisis in Gaza.