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Relief response depot Dubai Humanitarian will ramp up the delivery of life-saving medical aid to Gaza to address the immense humanitarian needs of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the enclave as the ceasefire enters the sixth day.
With more than 110,000 people injured in relentless bombing raids, medics are struggling to cope with only half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals partially operational.
Dubai Humanitarian will facilitate three airlifts to Gaza via El Arish, Egypt, with the first aircraft leaving the emirate on Friday morning. It carried 67.9 tonnes of medical kits from the WHO's Hub for Global Health Emergencies Logistics in Dubai.
The airlifts, under the directive of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, will be done in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and carried out by the Dubai Air Wing.
"[We] have significantly increased the dispatch of medical supplies and mobile hospitals to address the pressing healthcare needs on the ground," said Giuseppe Saba, CEO and board member of Dubai Humanitarian.
"We remain hopeful that the ceasefire will allow the sustained and unhindered flow of aid, enabling us to scale up operations and extend our reach to those in urgent need.”
According to the WHO, nearly all hospitals have been destroyed or badly damaged, and just one in three primary healthcare centres is functional.
"Our focus is on responding to the unprecedented needs in Gaza where health facilities have been destroyed, healthcare workers and WHO staff have lost their lives and severe shortages of essential medicines now exist," said Robert Blanchard, head of WHO’s Hub for Global Health Emergencies Logistics.
He added that the Friday's airlift will "support 95,000 people for three months”.
“The shipment includes emergency healthcare kits that contain insulin, and essential medicines for the treatment of respiratory diseases, infections and cardiovascular disease.”
Since the onset of the crisis, Dubai Humanitarian has facilitated the delivery of more than 1,068 tonnes of aid to Gaza aboard 23 airlifts and 1 sea shipment. It was carried out in collaboration with the WHO, Unicef, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The UAE’s largest relief initiative for Gaza has entered its biggest phase, targeting 9,500 displaced people living in shelters and temporary tents.
Part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, the campaign will focus on people near Al Aqsa University in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, state news agency Wam had earlier reported.
The UAE has contributed 42 per cent of the total aid sent to Gaza since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, topping the list of donor countries.
The UAE's aid contributions have been valued at $828 million, the German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
The Emirates was among the first countries to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with President Sheikh Mohamed launching the Gallant Knight operation to send vital aid by land, air and sea.
