Displaced Palestinians sit in a makeshift tent camp in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec 28, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)

GENEVA/NICOSIA - The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern on Wednesday about tens of thousands of displaced people fleeing from Israel's strikes across the center and south of the Gaza Strip.

"The WHO is extremely concerned this fresh displacement of people will further strain health facilities in the south, which are already struggling to meet the population's immense needs," Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, said.

Food shortage continues to be acute across Gaza, with hungry people stopping the WHO convoys in the hope of finding food, the health agency said.

A British naval ship which took on a load of humanitarian aid for Gaza failed to deliver it and docked in Malta instead for security concerns, Cyprus News Agency reported on Thursday

"This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases, and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid," Peeperkorn added.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, reiterated his appeal to the international community to take urgent steps to alleviate the "grave peril" facing Palestinians.

According to the latest WHO assessments, Gaza has 13 partially functioning hospitals, two minimally functioning ones, and 21 that are not functioning at all.

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Meanwhile, a  British naval ship which took on a load of humanitarian aid for Gaza failed to deliver it and docked in Malta instead for security concerns, Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported on Thursday.

"The conditions for the full implementation of our (humanitarian) initiative, as well as the relative timing, are affected by asymmetric factors beyond our own control," Cypriot government sources said, according to CNA. They added: "We are at a sensitive point, we are doing everything we can to help. And we will continue."

The British ship, the RFA Lyme Bay, was carrying 80 tons of aid, mostly tents donated by Britain and medicines from Cyprus. It sailed from Larnaca port for Gaza on Dec 16.

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However, after several days it diverted its course from the eastern Mediterranean region over security concerns, the Cypriot government sources said.

They added that "it is up to the side in possession of the marine transport means (the UK) to decide about the final point of safe delivery."

Cypriot state radio CyBC reported on Thursday that a British Defense Ministry spokesman had refused to comment on the actual movements of the ship, but repeated that the delivery of the humanitarian aid depended on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict giving their approval.