Hospitals in Gaza should be able to function, says German foreign minister

BERLIN (AA) - German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said hospitals in the Gaza Strip should be able to function.

During her visit to the border crossing to the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Baerbock drew attention to the disaster in the health sector in Gaza and said: "The hospitals that still exist in Gaza should be able to perform their functions."

She emphasized the need for doctors in Gaza to be able to work and have an adequate supply of medicine.

Baerbock also drew attention to 3,000 aid trucks waiting at the Rafah border crossing.

"These trucks cannot wait for days in this bottleneck in Rafah anymore. We need a border crossing that can operate at any time of the day," she said.

Baerbock added that the German government will do its best to establish a border crossing that operates around the clock.

The German minister will visit the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stationed in Lebanon on Tuesday.

Israel has pounded the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 23,210 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 59,167 others, according to local health authorities.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas offensive.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced, while all of them are food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and ⁠less than half of aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.