Gaza cancer patients are dying at two to three times the pace they did before the start of the genocide in the territory, as Israel blocks many from travelling for treatment after destroying the only local specialised facility. Israel blew up Gaza's specialised cancer hospital last year after claiming that troops found a tunnel used by Hamas running beneath it, a claim that they have yet to substantiate. That means that an estimated 17,000 Gazans with cancer have no local option for chemotherapy or other advanced therapy. Practically no Palestinians can afford to travel for treatment, and those who can face Israeli restrictions. The military imposes strict caps on daily crossings to Egypt, despite a 2025 Israel-Hamas "ceasefire" deal that requires free movement in and out. Asked for comment, COGAT, the Israeli military agency that controls access to Gaza, said it coordinates medical evacuations with the World Health Organisation. To depart, Gazans mus...
The head of the World Health Organization called for a ceasefire and a "true solution" to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in an emotional plea to the global health body's governing body on Thursday where he described conditions in Gaza as "hellish". WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who lived through war as a child and whose own children hid in a bunker during bombardments in Ethiopia's 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea, became emotional describing conditions in the bombed-out Gaza enclave where more than 25,000 people have been killed. "I'm a true believer because of my own experience that war doesn't bring solution, except more war, more hatred, more agony, more destruction. So let's choose peace and resolve this issue politically," Tedros told the WHO Executive Board in Geneva during a discussion about the Gaza health emergency. "I think all of you have said the two-state solution and so on, and hope this war will end and move into a true solution," he said, before breaking down, describing the current situation as "beyond words". Read Israel braces for World Court ruling, focuses attack on south Gaza Israel unleashed its campaign to eliminate Hamas after the Palestinian resistance group burst into Israel on October 7 killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took over 200 hostages back to Gaza. In more than three months of the war, Israel's campaign has levelled much of the enclave, displaced some 1.9 million Palestinians and killed at least 25,900 people, according to Gaza officials. Israel launched a campaign brutal bombardment and a ground invasion in October after resistance fighters from Hamas stormed into southern Israel after enduring more than seven decades of Israeli atrocities and oppression. Israel's ambassador said Tedros' comments represented a "complete leadership failure". "The statement by the director-general was the embodiment of everything that is wrong with WHO since October 7th. No mention of the hostages, the rapes, the murder of Israelis, nor the militarisation of hospitals and Hamas' despicable use of human shields," Meirav Eilon Shahar said in comments sent to Reuters. She also accused the global health agency of "collusion" with Hamas, saying the WHO turned a blind eye to Hamas' activities in Gaza hospitals. In the same address, Tedros warned that more people in Gaza would die of starvation and disease. "If you add all that, I think it's not easy to understand how hellish the situation is," he said.
from Latest World News, International News | Breaking World News https://ift.tt/cxdB5Ok
from Latest World News, International News | Breaking World News https://ift.tt/cxdB5Ok
Comments
Post a Comment