GENEVA: The WHO said on Tuesday that a patient died in an emergency convoy en route to a Gaza City hospital during repeated and lengthy Israeli checks, adding that health workers were detained and abused.

The World Health Organisation headed a convoy at the weekend to deliver essential trauma and surgical supplies to the badly damaged Al-Ahli hospital and to evacuate critical patients.

It said on Tuesday that the mission had managed to deliver enough surgical supplies to treat 1,500 patients and had transferred out 19 critical cases with 14 companions to the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, where they can receive higher level of care.

But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter, that the agency was “deeply concerned about prolonged checks and detention of health workers that put lives of already fragile patients at risk”.

“Due to the hold-up, one patient died en route, given the grave nature of their wounds and the delay in accessing treatment,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2023