The World Health Organisation chief has warned that two million people are “starving” in the Gaza Strip, with the deliberate blocking of aid driving up the risk of famine, AFP reports.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO and other UN agencies stood ready to deliver aid into the Palestinian territory — if and when it is allowed to enter.
“Two months into the latest blockade, two million people are starving,” Tedros said, while 160,000 metric tonnes of food “is blocked at the border just minutes away”. “The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade.”
Speaking at the opening of the annual World Health Assembly, Tedros said that increasing hostilities, evacuation orders, shrinking humanitarian space and the Gaza aid blockade were “driving an influx of casualties to a health system that is already on its knees”.
“People are dying from preventable diseases as medicines wait at the border, while attacks on hospitals deny people care, and deter them from seeking it,” he said.
