The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed grave concern on Friday about the further worsening of the health crisis in the West Bank, an area occupied by Israel since 1967, as draconian restrictions, violence and attacks on medical infrastructure make access to health services is an increasingly complex issue.

In a statement, the Organization, part of the UN system, called for a policy of “immediate and active protection of civilians and the health system in the West Bank.”

Since the outbreak of war between Israel’s armed forces and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 521 Palestinians, including 126 children, have been killed and more than 5,200, including 800 children, have been injured in violent clashes. incidents in the West Bank, WHO notes.

The Palestinian Authority, in power in the West Bank, counts for its part at least 545 deaths in operations by Israeli forces or attacks by Jewish settlers since October 7.

The massive increase in hospital admissions is “increasing the burden” on emergency departments in health facilities that are “already under strain” and operating at only 70% capacity due to a lack of money, the WHO said.

The West Bank had already seen an upsurge in violence over the past two years, which escalated even more after the war broke out in the Gaza Strip.

On that day, Hamas’ military arm launched an unprecedented raid in southern Israel that killed 1,194 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Another 251 people were kidnapped, of whom 116 are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, but 41 are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.

In retaliation, Israel’s armed forces have launched wide-scale operations in the Gaza Strip that have killed at least 37,266 people, mostly civilians, according to health ministry data in the Hamas-ruled enclave.

Most hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or extensively damaged since the outbreak of war, with the WHO saying it recorded 480 attacks on health facilities or ambulances between October 7 and May 28. At least 16 people were killed and 95 wounded in the attacks, according to the same source. But the implications for the wider population are much wider.

Still according to the organization, in the West Bank access to health services has been complicated by the closure of border crossings to and from Israel, heightened insecurity and the siege of entire villages.

The increasingly serious fiscal crisis, exacerbated by the fact that since October 7 Israel has withheld an ever-increasing share of the tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, means that “health workers receive only half their salary during almost a year and that the stocks of 45% of the most necessary medicines have been exhausted”, the WHO further embellishes.