By Emma Farge
GENEVA (Portal) – The World Health Organization’s executive board will hold an emergency meeting on December 10 to discuss the health crisis in Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian envoy calls for more medical aid and access for foreign health workers.
The WHO confirmed on Monday that it had received a request from 15 countries to hold the meeting, which will be convened by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in consultation with the Qatari chairman.
Palestinian U.N. Ambassador to Geneva Ibrahim Khraishi said the meeting would focus primarily on Gaza, ravaged by war between its Hamas rulers and Israel, but would also cover attacks on the health sector in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“We want to strengthen the WHO and call on the Israeli side not to target the medical sector. We want to provide fresh medical supplies,” he told Portal, adding that his diplomatic mission was preparing a proposal to be considered by the board.
“One idea is to send more doctors from around the world,” he added, saying many countries had offered.
Only a fraction of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational due to Israeli bombing and fuel shortages, and those that remain are increasingly overwhelmed by a new wave of wounded.
A WHO database shows that there have been 427 attacks on health facilities in Palestinian areas since Hamas’ cross-border attack on Israel on October 7 and its retaliatory air strike and invasion of Gaza. The database does not address who is blamed for the attacks.
Israel has accused Hamas of using ordinary Gazans as human shields by placing command centers and weapons in hospitals and other civilian buildings.
A senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel would facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip as fighting there resumes following the collapse of a week-long ceasefire.
The WHO has also warned of the spread of disease that it says could kill more people than bombings in Gaza, with cases of diarrhea among children reaching about 100 times normal levels.
Up to 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes due to an Israeli bombing campaign that has turned much of the crowded coastal strip into a barren wasteland.
The WHO Governing Board consists of 34 members and typically meets in January each year to set the agenda for its annual meeting. Countries currently holding seats include the United States, France, China and Japan.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Matthias Williams and Alison Williams)