Who: US Aid Freeze leaves the financing hole for Gaza evacuations

Geneva/Cairo, February 25 (DPA/GNA) – The freezing of the United States in Aid has left the World Health Organization (WHO) without $ 46 million that he intended to use to evacuate serious Gaza patients and rebuild damaged hospitals On the coast of the Strip coast, a representative said on Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists through a video link from the Gaza Strip, Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO coordinator for the region, said operations could still be financed at the moment with money from other donors.

But, he said, WHO hopes that the United States funds will be launched again.

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, ordered a suspension of humanitarian assistance in January and said that each element of expenses would be reviewed to determine if it served the interests of the United States.

Peeperkorn said that 889 seriously ill patients have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip since February 1, including 335 children, but thousands more expect help they cannot receive there.

He called Israel to allow hospitals transfers in East Jerusalem or in occupied West Bank, which were possible before the war.

Peeperkorn also provided an update on the Polyomyelitis vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, which he was doing well. He said that 92% of the 591,000 planned children under 10 had been vaccinated so far.

The campaign was launched after the polyomyelitis virus was detected in wastewater last year. At that time, around 7,000 children could not be vaccinated due to the fight between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas.

Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Media has opened a field hospital with 54 beds in the city of Gaza, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Rescue Societies (Iffif). The hospital has an intensive care unit and two operational theaters, and can provide attention to newborns.

The Iffif said the first patients had arrived at the hospital in the early hours of Tuesday.

Three Palestinian babies die of hypothermia in gaza

In another health-related development, the head of the Asdika Al-Marid hospital in Gaza, said Saleh, said that at least three Palestinian babies have died of hypothermia during a cold snapshot.

The Hamas controlled health authority did not comment initially about deaths.

The fire has extended a high in the Gaza Strip since January 19. But more than 15 months of struggle between the Israeli army and Hamas have left much of the devastated coastal area and hundreds of thousands of homeless Palestinians.

Many live in tents made of plastic sheets, which offer little protection against cold weather, storms and rain, according to the United Nations.

Temperatures in the region are currently unusually low, falling to only a few degrees Celsius above freezing at night. Babies are particularly at risk in temperatures that cannot regulate their body temperature independently.

Israel has said that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip can only begin when all Israeli hostages have been released and Hamas is no longer in power in the territory.

GNA