The head of the WHO also reported 25 attacks against health facilities in Israel since the conflict began on October 7 following the unprecedented attack that the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas carried out on Israeli territory.
“The best way to support these healthcare workers and the people they care for is to give them the means they need for care: medications, medical equipment and fuel for hospital generators,” he added.
He also requested an increase in humanitarian aid arriving through the Rafah crossing, bordering Egypt, and repeated the repeated calls of UN officials for a “ceasefire.”
“I understand what the children of Gaza are going through, because I went through the same thing when I was a child,” said the WHO director general, originally from Tigray, Ethiopia.
“The sound of gunshots and projectiles whistling in the air, the smell of smoke after impact, the bullets tracing in the night, the fear, the suffering,” he described, while denouncing the “barbaric” attacks of October 7 and called for the release of the hostages held by Hamas.
At a time when the Security Council, deeply divided on this issue, is unable to speak with a single voice, the head of the WHO also called for a reform of the UN body.
“I have long believed that the Security Council no longer fulfills the function for which it was created,” he said, referring to the maintenance of global “peace and security.”
At the beginning of its meeting, the Security Council observed a minute of silence in tribute to the victims of the Hamas attacks against Israel (1,200, according to the Israeli balance), to the civilians killed in the bombings of Gaza (more than 11,000, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health), and the journalists and UN staff who have lost their lives in the confrontations.