“The needs in Gaza remain great despite the ceasefire,” said Peppercorn during the weekly press conference of the United Nations office in Geneva via video link on Friday. He explained that “of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, only half are partially operational, and since the ceasefire began, 26 health care service points have been reopened, and 8 new points have been established.”
He stressed that "there are no functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, where the population is estimated at no less than 20,000 people."
Peppercorn noted that since the ceasefire began, the World Health Organization has managed to bring 2,050 packages of medical supplies into Gaza, adding that 343 out of 622 essential medicines held by the Palestinian Ministry of Health are currently completely out of stock.
He stressed the need to deliver more aid to Gaza, reiterating the call to open all crossings and routes in order to increase the volume of relief operations and supplies. Peppercorn indicated that the first round of the "compensatory vaccination" campaign in the Gaza Strip concluded yesterday, Thursday.
He added: “From November 9 to 20, more than 13,700 children were vaccinated as part of a campaign carried out by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNRWA and their partners in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, and with the support of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).”
He explained that 8,025 patients were evacuated from Gaza to more than 30 countries during the period from October 2023 to November 2025, noting that more than 16,500 Palestinian patients still need medical evacuation outside the Gaza Strip.
"Intensive demolition operations"
Hamas said on Friday that Israel is "intensifying its demolition and destruction of residential buildings" in areas under its control under the ceasefire agreement east of the Gaza Strip, in a "systematic extermination of what remains of the urban infrastructure."
This came in a statement by the movement’s spokesman, Hazem Qassem, in response to the extensive demolition operations carried out by the Israeli occupation army since dawn on Friday, in a policy that continues despite the agreement that came into effect on October 10.
Qassem described the policy of demolishing residential buildings as "criminal," stressing that it constitutes "a blatant violation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement," and called on the mediators guaranteeing the agreement to "take real action to stop these serious violations of the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement (regarding the Gaza Strip)."
The agreement was signed on October 13 and includes, among other things, a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners, and is based on the plan of US President Donald Trump.
The genocidal war that Israel started on October 7, 2023 and lasted for two years left more than 69,000 Palestinian martyrs and more than 170,000 wounded.
Israel has violated this agreement dozens of times, through bombing, shooting and demolition operations, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of hundreds of Palestinians and the destruction of large areas of urban areas.