World Health Organization Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has highlighted the worsening conditions in Gaza.
He stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to spiral out of control.
“The health and humanitarian situation in Gaza is inhumane and continues to deteriorate,” Ghebreyesus told reporters.
He added that “on a broader level, Gaza has become a death zone.”
Separately, an official with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described “appalling” conditions inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Jonathan Whittall, Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer with the OCHA, made his comments during a mission to the besieged hospital with the WHO and the Palestine Red Crescent to evacuate the most critically ill who have been trapped inside for weeks amid Israeli bombardments.
“There are 150 patients in one of these buildings. They have no food and water, no electricity. There’s very few doctors and nurses that are remaining inside this hospital. The conditions are appalling,” Whittall said in a video posted on social media.
“There are dead bodies in the corridors. Patients are in a desperate situation. This has become a place of death, not a place of healing.
“This is a preventable tragedy that should not have happened.” Jonathan Whittall
Gaza’s Ministry of Health spokesman, Dr Ashraf Al-Qudra, echoed Whittall’s statement, saying that the situation at Nasser Medical Complex is unbearable and poses a real danger to the lives of staff and patients.
He noted that medical teams are unable to provide care to patients due to a lack of oxygen and medical supplies.
“Tonnes of medical and non-medical waste have accumulated in the corridors and courtyards,” he said, adding that sewage water “is flooding the emergency and radiology departments.”
Also, Ismail al-Thawabteh, the head of Gaza’s government media office, disclosed that residents of the northern Gaza Strip have been eating animal feed for three consecutive weeks.
He warned of a humanitarian catastrophe affecting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians if the world fails to force Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged coastal enclave.
The World Food Programme’s (WFP) Chief, Cindy McCain said in a post on X that a famine in Gaza may happen if things do not change.
The WFP announced on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, that it had to pause the delivery of aid in northern Gaza due to unsafe conditions, making the hundreds of thousands of people there more at risk of starvation.
Making reference to the World Food Programme’s decision to pause food deliveries to northern Gaza, UN special rapporteur, Francesca Albanese said, “That’s the situation that Israel has created in Gaza.”
“Imagine as a parent having to fight to get food for your child who is dying of hunger … Shame on all of us for allowing this betrayal of humanity,” Albanese said.
Hamas Calls On WFP, Other UN Agencies To Resume Aid Deliveries
In a statement, Hamas said the WFP’s suspension of food aid delivery to the northern Gaza Strip “is a dangerous development that will double the suffering of our Palestinian people.”
“We call on the WFP and all UN agencies, including UNRWA, to put pressure on the occupying power, by announcing a return to work in the northern Gaza Strip in accordance with their international mandates to relieve our people from the dangerously increasing threat of famine, in compliance with their legal and humanitarian responsibilities,” the group said in a statement on Telegram.
Hamas also called on the members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation “to take urgent and effective action to break the siege and relieve our Palestinian people from the threat of famine and extermination.”
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