Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to all Member States, and thank you for joining us once again.
On Friday, I had the opportunity to brief the Security Council on the health situation in Gaza.
More than 11,000 people have now been killed, almost 70% of them women and children.
The intensification of hostilities over the last three days has paralysed the health system’s capacities to maintain reporting, but we know that casualties have only increased.
WHO is on the ground in Gaza, alongside our partners, to support health workers, who are physically and mentally exhausted and are doing their best in unimaginable conditions.
In addition to caring for the 28,000 people who are wounded, many of them with life-threatening injuries, they are trying to manage the regular health needs of more than two million people.
More than 180 women give birth in Gaza every single day; there are 2,000 patients on cancer therapy; and there are more than 350,000 patients with diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.
The vast majority of the population has now been displaced south of the Wadi Gaza, and is being serviced by just one-third of the original hospital capacity – hospitals which are already full, not supplied properly, and that have minimal surgical and intensive care capacities.
We need to rapidly resupply the hospitals, reconstitute the health workforce and ensure health services are protected.
Most of all, we need attacks on health to stop.
Since the 7th of October, WHO has verified more than 250 attacks on health care in Gaza and the West Bank, in addition to 25 attacks on health care in Israel – hospitals, clinics, patients, ambulances.
Between Friday and Saturday last week, WHO documented eight additional attacks, all of which impacted health facilities that had already been previously attacked.
More than 100 of our UN colleagues have been killed, and counting.
More than half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary health care centres are not functioning at all. Those that are functioning are operating way beyond their capacities.
Shortage of fuel and water have also resulted in the shutdown of non-essential services and more and more critical services as the situation worsens.
The best way to support Gaza’s health workers and the people they serve is by giving them the tools they need to deliver that care – medicines, medical equipment and fuel for hospital generators.
Field hospitals and emergency medical teams can complement and support existing hospitals and health workers in Gaza, but they cannot replace them.
Supporting Gaza’s health workers is at the heart of WHO’s operational response plan.
WHO was part of the first convoy of aid to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing on the 21st of October, and since then we have delivered 63 metric tonnes of specialist medical equipment and supplies that health workers need to save lives, including to hospitals north of Wadi Gaza.
But this doesn’t even begin to address the scale of need.
Before the 7th of October, an average of 500 trucks a day were crossing into Gaza with essential supplies.
Since the 21st of October, instead of the expected 10,000 trucks, just over 900 have entered.
A month ago, just two days after the violence started, I met with His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, who agreed to support WHO and our partners to deliver aid through the Rafah crossing.
I thank Egypt for its support in getting aid into Gaza, and for establishing a medivac pathway to get the most critically sick and wounded patients out, including 12 children with cancer who are being transferred for treatment in Egypt and Jordan.
WHO continues to call for unfettered access to deliver humanitarian aid to the civilians of Gaza, who are not responsible for this violence, but are suffering in ways that we in this room cannot imagine.
We continue to call on Hamas to release the hostages it took, many of whom need urgent medical attention.
We continue to call on Israel to restore supplies of electricity, water and especially fuel.
We continue to call on both sides to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law.
And we continue to call for a ceasefire, to prevent further deaths of civilians and further damage to Gaza’s hospitals and health facilities.
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Excellencies, while the situations in Gaza, Israel, and Ukraine are rightly getting much attention, other violent and badly disruptive conflicts in the rest of the world are going unnoticed.
The conflict in Sudan has been ongoing for seven months. It is having a devastating impact on lives, health and wellbeing.
More than 7.1 million people are displaced, making Sudan the country with the most internally displaced people in the world.
This displacement is driving food insecurity. Almost 700,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and 100,000 have medical complications requiring specialized care.
The number of hungry people has doubled since the start of the conflict, to more than 20 million.
With violence in Darfur increasing, thousands of people are seeking security across the border in Chad, putting large burdens on an already fragile country.
Sudan’s health system is stretched to breaking point. Capacities are declining in the face of the mounting needs.
Many health facilities are non-functional, while others are overwhelmed with patients.
Several states are experiencing outbreaks of cholera, measles, dengue and malaria.
And many people with non-communicable diseases are unable to access treatment.
WHO has verified 60 attacks on health care, which not only puts the lives of health workers and patients at risk, it also impacts the ability of the population to get health care.
Meanwhile, health care workers have not been paid for months.
WHO is coordinating partners, organizing mobile clinics, improving surveillance and delivering medicines and supplies.
We are also working with communities to increase awareness of risks and how to take measures to prevent further spread of infectious diseases.
But we are working in a very difficult environment due to insecurity, while bureaucratic and administrative impediments are resulting in lack of access.
As always, we are grateful for your engagement with today’s presentations, and we look forward to your questions, comments and guidance.
I thank you.