The World Health Organization (WHO) this week warned that disease could cause the most deaths in Gaza amid the Israel–Hamas conflict that erupted last month.
The U.N.-backed health agency said that the health care system needs to be repaired, warning of a surge in infectious diseases and diarrhea in children.
“Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than we are even seeing from the bombardment if we are not able to put back (together) this health system,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris said during a U.N. briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
She repeated concerns about a rise in infectious diseases, particularly diarrhea in infants and children, with cases for those aged five and older surging to more than 100 times normal levels by early November.
“Everybody everywhere has dire health needs now because they’re starving because they lack clean water and [they’re] crowded together,” Ms. Harris said, adding that there is “no medicine ... no access to safe water and hygiene, and no food.”
She added that about three-quarters of hospitals, or 26 out of 36, have shut down entirely in Gaza due to the military operation or lack of fuel.
If there are no changes to the health care system, “there will be more and more people falling sick and the risk of major outbreaks will increase dramatically,” said Richard Brennan, the regional emergency director for WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean sub-agency, according to Qatar-backed Al Jazeera television.
Earlier this month, health officials provided more details about what diseases might be spreading throughout Gaza. They include cholera, a type of contagious diarrheal illness that is spread via contaminated water and can lead to death, as well as typhoid, a type of salmonella bacteria that also results in death.
The WHO, which has been accused by critics of a lack of transparency and favoritism to the Chinese regime during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, also said that under those conditions, fighting should not resume. They again called for a permanent ceasefire.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his country will resume its war against Hamas, a State Department-designated terrorist organization, amid a several-day-long ceasefire.
“We are at war, and we will continue the war,” he stated last week. “We will continue until we achieve all our goals.”
About a week before that, President Joe Biden said he wouldn’t back a permanent ceasefire because Hamas represents a threat to the Israeli nation and that its military is seeking to avoid civilian deaths.
“It is not carpet bombing. This is a different thing. They’re going through these tunnels, they’re going into the hospital,“ the president said in mid-November. ”They’re also bringing in incubators or bringing in other means to help people in the hospital, and they’ve given, I’m told, the doctors and nurses and personnel the opportunity to get out of harm’s way. So this is a different story than I believe it was occurring before, the indiscriminate bombing.”
In those remarks, the president said that Hamas has publicly stated again that “they plan on attacking Israel again like they did before, cutting babies’ heads off, burning women and children alive.” White House officials said that they haven’t seen evidence of that and that the president was referring to news reports.
Update on Ceasefire
Meanwhile, the current temporary ceasefire that has allowed for the release of Hamas-captured hostages is scheduled to end Wednesday as top U.S. officials have pushed for an extension.“Looking at the next couple of days, we’ll be focused on doing what we can to extend the pause so we can continue to get more hostages out and more humanitarian assistance in,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Wednesday in Brussels as he was attending a NATO foreign ministers meeting.
He added: “And we’ll discuss with Israel how it can achieve its objective of ensuring that the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7 never happen again, while sustaining and increasing humanitarian assistance and minimizing further suffering of Palestinian civilians.”
In recent days, President Biden has publicly said he wants to see the ceasefire pause to continue for as long as possible, saying there needs to be plans for a post-conflict Gaza. Both he and Mr. Blinken have suggested that there needs to be a resumption of talks to create an independent Palestinian state.
“We believe that that is the only path to enduring peace, to enduring security, to the preservation of Israel as a strong secure, democratic Jewish state and Palestinians having their legitimate aspirations for a state and self-determination,” Mr. Blinken said Wednesday.
