2023-11-10 23:10:07
The Director-General of the World Health Organization warned before the UN Security Council that the health system in the Gaza Strip had become “completely exhausted,” saying that half of the 36 hospitals in the Strip were out of service.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “It is impossible to describe the situation on the ground: hospital corridors crowded with wounded, sick, and dying people, crowded morgues, surgeries without anesthesia, tens of thousands of refugees,” noting that there had been “more than 250 attacks” on health institutions in Gaza and the West Bank. Since October 7th.
He added, “The best way to support these health sector workers and the people who care for them is to give them the means they need for health care, such as medicines, medical equipment, and fuel for hospital generators,” calling for an increase in humanitarian aid that arrives through the Rafah crossing and reiterating calls by United Nations officials for a “cease to release… fire”.
Ghebreyesus, who is from the Ethiopian Tigray region, added, “I understand what the children of Gaza are going through because I went through the same thing when I was a child.”
He described “the sound of gunshots and shells whistling in the air, the smell of smoke following they were fired, and the fear and suffering,” denouncing at the same time the October 7 attacks.
While the Security Council, deeply divided on this issue, has not been able to speak with a unified voice since the beginning of the war, the Director-General of the World Health Organization also called for reform of the United Nations.
“I believe that the Security Council no longer fulfills the role for which it was established a long time ago,” which is to maintain global “peace and security,” he said.
For his part, Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent, Marwan Al-Jilani, called via video on Council members to “do everything in their power to prevent more deaths and more suffering.”
He spoke in particular regarding the situation in Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, which, according to the Red Crescent, was exposed to gunfire on Friday.
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