Disease may claim more lives in Gaza than bombs, the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday, highlighting the dire humanitarian conditions inside the Palestinian enclave as a truce between Israel and Hamas is on its fifth day.
A view of an United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Rafah, ... [+]
At a UN briefing in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said “eventually” more people in Gaza will die from diseases than Israeli strikes if the enclave’s healthcare system isn’t restored, Reuters reported.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry over 15,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on the territory so far—including 6,150 children and 4,000 women.
The actual toll is feared to be higher as several people are likely to be under the rubble of bombed-out buildings.
Harris said the situation is especially grim in northern Gaza—which has borne the brunt of the war and aerial bombardments by Israeli forces—as people in the region have no access to medicines, vaccines, safe drinking water and food.
Another UN official who spoke via video call from Gaza said hospitals in the enclave were filled with children who were either wounded or suffering from gastroenteritis caused by dirty drinking water.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the extension of the truce between Israel and Hamas, while positive, is not enough to guarantee that adequate aid is delivered to the people of Gaza. Guterres said: “Even with that additional amount of time, it will be impossible to satisfy all the dramatic needs of the population.” The UN Secretary-General called for the opening of additional routes to aid delivery to Gaza, as all of it is flowing through a single crossing between the enclave and Egypt. All other points of entry into Gaza are controlled by Israel.
Calling for a complete ceasefire, Save the Children’s Palestine director, Jason Lee, said: “How many lives have to be lost - from children, civilians, humanitarian staff - before the international community steps up and fulfills its legal, diplomatic and moral obligations to keep civilians safe from the clutches of conflict?”
1.8 million. That is the total number of people who have been internally displaced in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). This is more than 80% of the enclave’s entire population.