Israel-Hamas War: WHO board to hold emergency meeting on Gaza, West Bank

On December 10, the executive board of the World Health Organisation will convene in an emergency meeting to address the health crisis in Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinian ambassador is advocating for increased medical assistance and easier access for foreign healthcare professionals. The session will be called by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus after consulting with the chair from Qatar, as the WHO revealed on Monday that it had received requests to conduct the meeting from 15 different nations. The meeting will primarily address Gaza, which is engaged in conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. It will also address attacks on the health sector in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Due to fuel shortages and Israeli bombs, only a small portion of Gaza’s hospitals are still open, and those that are are being more and more overloaded with newly arrived wounded. According to a WHO database, since Israel’s cross-border strike on October 7th, which was followed by Hamas’s invasion of Gaza and retaliatory aerial bombardment, there have been 427 attacks on healthcare facilities located in Palestinian territories. Who is thought to be behind the attacks is not mentioned in the database. Israel has charged Hamas with employing common Gazans as human shields by locating weaponry and command centres inside of medical facilities and other non-military structures. As fighting in Gaza resumed on Saturday following the breakdown of a week-long truce, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel would assist in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilian population. Additionally, the WHO has issued a warning regarding the spread of illness, claiming that it could kill more people than the bombardment of Gaza and that the number of kid cases of diarrhoea is around 100 times higher than normal. Due to an Israeli bombing campaign, up to 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have evacuated their homes, turning much of the populated coastal strip into a barren wasteland. The 34-member WHO governing board convenes in January to set the agenda for the organization’s annual assembly. Japan, China, France, and the United States are among countries currently holding seats. (With agency inputs)