Palestinian women mourn relatives killed after Israeli strikes, at a hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 23, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
The World Health Organisation on Monday said an aid mission to two hospitals in northern Gaza found horrifying scenes of children dying of starvation, amid dire shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said the agency’s visits over the weekend to the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals “were the first since early October 2023 despite our efforts to gain more regular access to the north of Gaza,” as quoted by AFP.
According to Ghebreyesus via X, “The situation at Al-Awda was particularly appalling, as one of the buildings was destroyed.”
The Kamal Adwan hospital, the only pediatrics hospital in northern Gaza, was overwhelmed with patients, he said.
“The lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children,” the WHO Chief noted.
The United Nations warned last week that famine in the Gaza Strip was “almost inevitable” because of the war that has been raging in the Palestinian territory since Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack inside Israel on October 7.
In addition to the dire lack of food at the two northern hospitals, Tedros also cautioned on X that “the lack of electricity poses a serious threat to patient care, especially in critical areas like the intensive care unit and the neonatal unit.”
During the weekend mission, the UN health agency delivered 9,500 litres of fuel to each hospital, along with some essential medical supplies, he said.
“This is a fraction of the urgent lifesaving needs.”
The WHO chief reiterated an appeal to Israel to “ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered safely, and regularly.”
“Civilians, especially children, and health staff need scaled-up help immediately,” he said, stressing that “the key medicine all these patients need is peace. Ceasefire.”
