2024-01-26 01:08:40
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director of the World Health Organization, called for a ceasefire and a “real solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an emotional appeal to the Executive Council of the United Nations organization in which he described the conditions in Gaza as “hellish.”
Ghebreyesus’ emotions flowed as he described the conditions in the Gaza Strip, which is being subjected to Israeli strikes in which more than 25,000 people were killed.
Ghebreyesus endured the war at a young age, and his children hid in a bunker during the bombing in the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea between 1998 and 2000.
“I am a true believer, because of my own experience, that war does not bring a solution, but rather more war, more hatred, more suffering, more destruction,” he told the Executive Board of the World Health Organization in Geneva during a discussion on the health emergency in Gaza. Let us choose peace and resolve this issue politically.”
He added, “I think you all said regarding the two-state solution and so on, and I hope that this war will end and move to a real solution,” before he broke down, describing the current situation as “at a loss for words.”
Israel launched a war to eliminate Hamas following the movement’s surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, which, according to Israel, resulted in the killing of 1,200 people and the taking of regarding 240 hostages to Gaza.
Merav Elon Shahar, Israel’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, said in statements sent to Reuters that the WHO director’s comments represent a “complete failure of leadership.”
She added, “The Director-General’s statement was an embodiment of everything that has been wrong with the World Health Organization since October 7. There was no mention of hostages, nor of the rape and killing of Israelis, nor of Hamas’ military use of hospitals and its despicable use of human shields.”
She accused the World Health Organization of “colluding” with Hamas, saying that the organization turned a blind eye to Hamas’ military activities in Gaza’s hospitals.
In the same speech, Ghebreyesus warned that more people in Gaza would die from hunger and disease.
“If you add all that up, I think it’s not easy to understand how hellish the situation is,” he said.
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