Director-General of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, gives his address during the high level segment session of the 6th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) at the United Nations (UN) offices in Gigiri, in Nairobi on 29 February 2024 [SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images]
The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Ghebreyesus, said on Wednesday that it had asked Israel to allow the WHO and its partners to deliver humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.
“Escalating violence in the north of #Gaza has blocked humanitarian missions from reaching people with food and medical supplies,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on social media. “Meanwhile, health care continues to be attacked.”
In the same context, the WHO official confirmed that during the first half of October, only one mission out of 54 UN missions assigned to northern Gaza completed its work successfully, while other missions were rejected, cancelled or obstructed. “We ask Israel to give @WHO and our partners access to the north so we can reach those who desperately need aid,” he added.
Ghebreyesus has stressed the importance of protecting hospitals following Israel’s targeting of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza on 14 October, noting that this was the eighth attack since March.
“Under international humanitarian law, all actors have a duty to ensure health care is protected, and not attacked,” said the WHO director-general.
The WHO representative for occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt), Rik Peeperkorn, has said that “about 500,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of hunger.”
Source: middleeastmonitor
