NEW YORK, Feb 22 — An “inhumane” health and humanitarian situation now prevails across Gaza, with conditions continuing to deteriorate, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Wednesday.
“Gaza has become a death zone,” Jordan News Agency (Petra) quoted the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as saying at a press briefing in Geneva.
“Much of the territory has been destroyed. More than 29,000 people are dead; many more are missing or presumed dead; and many, many more are injured,” he added.
Across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, severe malnutrition has dramatically shot up since the start of the war, increasing from under one per cent of the population to over 15 per cent in some areas.
“This figure will rise the longer the war goes on and supplies are interrupted,” Tedros said, expressing deep concern that agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) are unable to access the north.
He reiterated the grave risks for humanitarians and the need to ensure they are protected.
“What type of world do we live in when people cannot get food and water and when people who cannot even walk are unable to receive care?
“What type of world do we live in when health workers are at risk of being bombed as they carry out their lifesaving work and hospitals must close because there is no more power or medicine to help save patients?” he lamented.
— Bernama
