Delivery of medical supplies from the World Health Organization’s global humanitarian supply hub in Dubai were briefly paralyzed after the United State and Israel launched war in Iran.
While the hub announced that it would be resuming operations by March 7, the work is now to prioritize priority backlogs and process urgent new shipments to meet existing and growing needs as conflict continues to escalate throughout the region.
“More than 50 emergency supply requests across 25 countries are currently affected,” according to a statement by Dr. Hanan Balkhy, regional director WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, on the impact of the mounting conflict on the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). “These pending requests—which will benefit more than 1.5 million people—include WHO supplies for Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Somalia, as well as polio laboratory supplies for global detection and eradication activities across a number of countries.”
She also noted that WHO’s emergency operations in the region currently face a 70% funding gap and that without urgent financial support (US$690 reportedly needed to sustain WHO’s emergency operations across the EMR in 2026), essential services will cease and preventable suffering will deepen.