Vital medical aid from World Health Organization supply trucks has yet to reach the beseiged Gaza enclave since the doors of an 80-day blockade inched open a week ago, said Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, at a UN-Geneva press briefing on Monday.

The chaos on the ground in Gaza, against a widening Israeli war and a halting resumption of some humanitarian aid deliveries, contrasted sharply with the largely symbolic vote by the World Health Assembly on Monday authorizing WHO to “raise the flag” of Palestine along that of other WHO member states.

The decision to ‘raise the flag’, approved by a vote of 95-4, was the fourth measure on the status of Palestine and the crisis in Gaza to come before the WHA in its 2025 session.  Only the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Israel  voted against the measure, while 27 member states abstained.