In an emotional plea, the head of the World Health Organization has called for a “true solution” to the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, describing the situation as “beyond words”.
“If we look for a solution, it’s always possible, it’s only the will that’s required,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the WHO Executive Board in Geneva on Thursday, during a discussion about Gaza’s health emergency.
“And I’m a true believer because of my own experience that war doesn’t bring solution, except more war, more hatred, more agony, more destruction.”
The Director-General reportedly lived through war as a child and his own children hid in a bunker during bombardments in Ethiopia’s 1998 – 2000 border war with Eritrea.
World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus breaks down while talking about the situation in #Gaza
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He said “So let’s choose peace and resolve this issue politically,” adding that “I think all of you have the two-state solution and so on, and hope this war will end and move into a true solution.”
Breaking down, he said: “I’m struggling to speak because the situation is beyond words.”
Tedros continued, “70% of the dead are children and women. That alone is enough for a ceasefire.”
He warned that the risk of epidemics is increasing “and people will die because of that as well. “
“And people are facing death or risk of death because of hunger and starvation and famine. If you add all that, I think it’s not easy to understand how hellish the situation is,” he stressed.
183 Palestinians Killed in 24 Hours – Gaza Death Toll Crosses 26,000
‘Health System on its Knees’
Earlier, in a post on X, the WHO chief said that the ceasefire is “long overdue.”
“Sick not getting services. Outbreaks & hunger spreading. Health system on its knees.”
He commented on a video shared on X by the UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, who described the scenes in the footage as “a sea of people forced to flee Khan Younis, ending up at the border with Egypt.”
Ghebreyesus said the situation is “Heartbreaking. Unacceptable. Inhumane. Ceasefire. Protect Civilians.”
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 26,083 Palestinians have been killed, and 64,487 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Since October 7, 2023, up to 1.9 million Palestinians (or over 85 percent of the population) have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some multiple times, according to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
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