“A The decimation of Gaza’s health system is a tragedy”, declared Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The WHO has long been alarmed by the state of health care following the start of the bloodiest war ever seen in Gaza, following the attack, unprecedented in terms of scale and acts committed, by Hamas against Israel on 7 October.
At the time, Palestinian Islamic militants killed around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to a count by the AFP news agency based on Israeli data, and captured around 250 hostages, 129 of whom are believed to still be in captivity in Gaza. .
Israel’s military campaign, which includes massive aerial bombardment, has killed 20,424 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The WHO warned last week that there were no longer functioning hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip.
After visiting two badly damaged hospitals in the north last week, Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli, WHO staff described “unbearable” scenes of largely abandoned patients, including young children, begging not for treatment but for food and water.
The hospitals, which are protected by international humanitarian law, have been hit several times by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the start of the war.
The Israeli army accuses Hamas of having tunnels under hospitals and using medical facilities as command centers, an accusation denied by the Islamist group.
As of December 20, the WHO had recorded 246 attacks on healthcare facilities and ambulances in Gaza, resulting in 582 deaths and 748 injuries.
Read Also: WHO “concerned” about detention of health professionals in Gaza
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2467854/diretor-da-oms-lamenta-devastacao-do-sistema-de-saude-em-gaza
