The EU has paused its countermeasures on unjustified US trade tariffs to allow time and space for EU-US negotiations. This puts on hold for up to 90 days the planned countermeasures against US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium imports, in response to the US delaying its so-called reciprocal tariffs.
“Al Ahli Hospital is out of service,” WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris told UN News, after the airstrike early on Sunday morning. “The pharmacy was destroyed, many of the different buildings and services were destroyed.”
Some 40 patients whose condition is too critical to be moved from the health facility are continuing to receive care, while the 50 other remaining patients – including the child who died – were evacuated to other medical centres shortly before the attack began.
The situation remains critical and medical supplies of all kinds are now “desperately low”, WHO’s Dr Harris said, before expressing deep concern for the safety of health personnel at the stricken hospital. Until Sunday’s strike, Al Ahli was the main hospital dealing with the casualties from Israeli airstrikes. Now, most casualties are sent to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The UN health agency says that only 21 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals now remain partially functional. Almost all of them have been damaged in the war, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel in October 2023 in which some 1,250 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.
Leading condemnation for the attack and repeating calls for a ceasefire, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted that hospitals have special protection under international humanitarian law: “Attacks on health care must stop. Once again we repeat: patients, health workers and hospitals must be protected. The aid blockade must be lifted.”
Aid teams highlighted how the hospital strike has already put “an immense additional strain” on the war-shattered enclave’s remaining partially operational hospitals.
“Mass casualty events are now the norm and those hospitals that are treating trauma patients are doing so amid severe shortages of critical supplies, including critical medicine,” Olga Cherevko from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, told UN News.
It has now been seven weeks since crossings were closed to all relief supplies meant for the people of Gaza, and nearly a month since Israeli bombardment resumed in the enclave amid disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the terms of a ceasefire extension that include the release of all hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
According to OCHA, more than 390,000 people have been displaced since Israeli bombing began again on 18 March.
In recent days, top UN officials have rebuffed Israeli assertions that there was enough food to feed all Palestinians, insisting that they were “far from the reality on the ground”. The global body’s top emergency relief official, Tom Fletcher, also stated that aid teams are “deliberately blocked from saving lives in Gaza”, leading to further civilian deaths.
According to the Gazan health authorities, well over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed and 115,688 Palestinians injured during the conflict. This includes 1,449 people killed and 3,647 injured since the escalation of hostilities on 18 March.
“Supplies that we had are rapidly running out and we’re running out of food of medicine, of shelter and every other life-critical item if the situation does not change immediately,” Ms. Cherevko stressed. “The catastrophe that is in Gaza will become worse and the needs of the people will become even higher. This cannot continue. Civilians must be protected and the crossings must be reopened immediately.”
Around 12% of Europe’s population live near rivers prone to flooding. Find out more about an EU project that is helping to protect communities in Slovakia and Poland from flash floods by installing smart sensors to monitor water levels, soil conditions and atmospheric factors in real time.
The EU has announced a €1.6 billion programme to help support the Palestinian people. Over 2 years, it will assist the Palestinian authority in continuing to provide services to the people, support economic recovery and resilience in the West Bank and Gaza, and invest in the private sector.
The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) and the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HERA) have prepared video guidelines for the EU4Health call for tenders to develop point-of-care diagnostic medical devices for antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
The pre-recorded info session can be watched on YouTube:
Interested parties are invited to apply on the Funding and Tenders Portal
The deadline to apply to the first step of the procedure is 12 May 2025, 16:00 CEST. Invitations to submit an offer for step 2 will be indicatively sent out at the beginning of June, with a deadline for step 2 indicatively in early September.
Background
EU4Health is the fourth and largest of the EU health programmes. The EU4Health programme goes beyond an ambitious response to the COVID-19 crisis to address the resilience of European healthcare systems. The programme provides funding to national authorities, health organisations and other bodies through grants and public procurement, contributing to a healthier Europe.
HaDEA manages the vast majority of the total EU4Health budget and implements the programme by managing calls for proposals and tenders from 2021 to 2027.
Before the start of their meeting of 14 April 2025, European Council President António Costa and Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama addressed the press.
The EU issued a statement marking two years of war in Sudan, in which it reiterates its strong appeal to the warring parties for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, and to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Every day, he drives his water truck through the Strip, filling up empty tanks and vessels.
Our camera accompanied Alloush on a recent arduous mission to provide a little water to the residents of Jabalia. UN News’ correspondent met Alloush in Jabalia’s desalination plant, where he spends hours waiting for water.
Like everywhere else in Gaza, the desalination plant is overcrowded. As Gaza is running out of fuel, Alloush explained that 35 to 40 liters of diesel is needed every hour for the plant just to operate.
At the plant, Ibrahim has to be patient: “We come to the desalination plant and wait about five hours for our turn to fill up. Water prices are very high due to production costs. People here in Gaza cannot afford water unless it is distributed by organizations, institutions, or initiatives.
“The cost of one cubic metre is very high because of how expensive diesel is, which is needed to operate the generators. One cubic metre of water can cost between 90 to 100 shekels, this is about 20 Jordanian dinars.”
Gaza residents lining up near the water truck to fill their jugs.
After completing his task, Ibrahim Alloush gets into his old truck, starts its engine, and sets off on a challenging journey through the devastated neighborhoods of Jabalia.
For Alloush, the struggle does not stop at the water plant. Driving through Gaza is not easy, navigating destroyed streets and surrounded by rubble, Alloush needs to reach the people waiting for him – waiting for water.
There are always people waiting for him. It is almost impossible for trucks to reach certain areas, if it were not for Mr. Alloush, these areas would basically be lacking any supply.
‘We are suffering from a major water crisis,” says Ayman Kamal, a Gaza Strip resident. While some can wait half a day to fill up five or ten gallons of water only, others may not even be able to get water, as they were too far behind in line.
“Without water, there is no life…We wait for potable water that comes from distant areas, and people crowd to get their share,” says another resident, Fathi al-Kahlout, as he fills his bucket.
“The blockade has caused us many problems. We hope that the world will look at us, even for one day, as it looks at other countries. Everyone in other countries lives in comfort. Why are we condemned to this fate?” asked Sameer Badr, explaining that his children spend their days going back and forth in search of water.
Two kids getting water from a truck.
The continued closure of border crossings and the ban on fuel entry is paralysing desalination plants, the closure of the main water pipelines has also led to a sharp decrease in the amount of drinking water available to residents in Gaza. The water crisis is worsening, warns Children’s Fund UNICEF.
After the collapse of the ceasefire, the repair work that had been started on vital wells and water points came to a total halt, leaving many water sources either out of service or at risk of further damage.
According to UNICEF about one million people – including 400,000 children – are currently receiving a daily six-litre ration per person, a stark decrease from the previous average of 16 litres.
If fuel runs out, UNICEF warned that this amount could drop to less than four litres per day in the coming weeks, forcing families to rely on unsafe sources, significantly increasing the risk of disease outbreaks, especially among children.
