„The situation still remains catastrophic because what‘s entering is not enough,“ WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online press briefing from the UN health agency‘s Geneva headquarters.
Since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, there has been „no dent in hunger, because there is not enough food“, he warned.
GENEVA – The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its deepest concern today over the catastrophic impact on children of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza, ahead of the upcoming 80th United Nations General Assembly session, and urgently reiterated its calls for decisive action by all States, and in particular by Israel as a de facto occupying force.
The Committee highlighted that the famine has now taken hold in Gaza. Malnutrition among children is accelerating at a catastrophic pace. The Committee echoed the multiple UN agencies’ warning that, without immediate and unhindered humanitarian access, the manmade famine will spread, and more children will die.
Starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels ever since the conflict began almost two years ago. Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives.
Malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July. As of 5 September 2025, 361 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition, including 130 children. As of 15 August 2025, Famine (IPC Phase 5)—with reasonable evidence—is confirmed in Gaza Governorate. After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death. Another 1.07 million people (54%) are in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), and 396 000 people (20%) are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).
GENEVA, August 23, 2025 (WAFA) – The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Saturday that more than 15,600 people in Gaza — including 3,800 children — require urgent medical evacuation to receive specialized treatment.
In a post on X, Dr. Tedros addressed the worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which continues to suffer from Israel’s ongoing campaign of starvation and mass killin
Of the 154 malnutrition-related deaths since October 2023 (including 89 children) reported by Gazan health authorities, the World Health Organization (WHO) said 63 occurred in July alone.
These deaths follow a steep drop in food consumption: 81 per cent of households reported poor food consumption in July (up from 33 per cent in April), and 24 per cent experienced severe hunger (up from 4 per cent), crossing the famine threshold, according to the humanitarian update issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday.
Acute malnutrition rates also surpassed famine thresholds in Khan Younis, Deir al Balah and Gaza City.
Given these recent figures, IPC food security experts warned that the worst-case famine scenario is unfolding. However, they added that while the third famine threshold of starvation-related deaths is rising, collecting data remains a challenge.
UN agencies caution that time is running out for a full-scale humanitarian response. 22 per cent of the analyzed population is facing “catastrophic” level of food insecurity, and a further 54 per cent is at “emergency” level.
OHCHR’s Ms. Shamdasani said that from 27 May, when the GHF started operations in Gaza, until 7 July, OHCHR recorded 798 killings “including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF sites and 183 presumably on the routes of aid convoys”.
The deaths of almost 800 people trying to access aid were “mostly due to… gunshot injuries”, Ms. Shamdasani said.
Joining her in condemning the killings, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that he is “slowly lacking words to describe the scenario”.
“People being shot at distribution sites… scores of women and children and men and boys and girls being killed while either getting food or in what’s supposedly safe shelters or on the road to health clinics or inside health clinics – this is far beyond unacceptable.”
According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO) at least 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to the local health authorities. The number is likely an underestimate and is expected to increase if the aid blockade continues.
In their latest report, respected and UN-partnered food insecurity experts warned that nearly 71 000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months unless Gazans can access sufficient food and healthcare support.
(January 3, 2024)
Summary
The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question – Security Council, 9830th meeting
Description
– Briefer: Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (via video-teleconference)
– Briefer: Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, Representative for the West Bank and Gaza, World Health Organization (via video-teleconference)
– Briefer: Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan, medical practitioner, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Charity (via video-teleconference)
– Statements: All Council members
– Statement: Observer State of Palestine
– Statements: Israel, Egypt
In a Security Council meeting on Friday, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, painted a grim picture of the situation, emphasising that over 25 per cent of the 105,000 injured civilians now face life-changing injuries.
“At the current rate, it would take five to 10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients,” Dr. Peeperkorn warned, noting that over 12,000 people remain on waiting lists for urgent treatment abroad.
Only 16 of the region’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, their collective capacity merely above 1,800 beds – entirely insufficient for the overwhelming medical needs.
“The health sector is being systematically dismantled,” Dr. Peeperkorn noted, citing shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel.
The Indonesian Hospital, one the biggest health facilities in northern Gaza, has been out of service for weeks due to ongoing Israeli attacks and a debilitating siege put in place since early October.
Earlier this week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, called on Israel to cease its attacks on Gaza‘s beleaguered hospitals and medical centres and offer a brief reprieve to exhausted Palestinians.
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese called on the medical community to act on Monday, as reports emerged that Israeli forces are holding the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, at a torture camp for Palestinian detainees that’s notorious for its brutality.
“I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel’s full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide,” Albanese said.
The head of the World Health Organization called for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was detained as Israeli forces raided the facility last week. Other human rights organizations, along with Abu Safiya’s family, have made the same demand.
What was most frightening about that air strike wasn‘t the effect on us, it was that it began as a civilian airliner from Yemenia Airways, carrying hundreds of Yemenis, was about to land. In fact, the plane was taxiing when the air traffic control was destroyed.
Fortunately, that plane was able to land safely, and the passengers were able to disembark but it could have been far, far worse.
The airport is civilian infrastructure. It is where all the international humanitarian aid workers who work in the north of the country enter and leave, so if the airport is disabled it will paralyze humanitarian operations.
It‘s also the airport by which thousands of Yemenis who are unable to get advanced healthcare in the country leave for health facilities in Jordan, Cairo or Mumbai. So, it is an absolute vital humanitarian location. It is essential that all parties to the conflict scrupulously observe international humanitarian law.”
Das Kamal-Adwan-Krankenhaus sei die letzte größere Gesundheitseinrichtung im Norden des Küstenstreifens gewesen und sei nun außer Betrieb, teilte die WHO auf X mit. Erste Berichte deuteten darauf hin, dass einige wichtige Abteilungen bei der Razzia stark verbrannt und zerstört worden seien.
Patienten in mittelschwerem bis schwerem Zustand seien ins zerstörte und nicht funktionstüchtige Indonesische Krankenhaus verlegt worden. Die Weltgesundheitsorganisation mache sich „große Sorgen um ihre Sicherheit“, hieß es.
Immediately after the airstrikes, Harneis said, U.N. security officials moved the delegation out of the VIP building and into five armored cars where they waited for approximately 40 minutes to ascertain what happened and help the injured crew member.
He was taken to a hospital in Sanaa and underwent four hours of surgery while the rest of the delegation spent the night in a U.N. compound, Harneis said. The U.N. plane with Tedros and the U.N. team, including the injured crew member, was able to depart for Jordan on Friday afternoon – without an operating control tower.
The United Nations said the injured crew member was taken to a hospital in Jordan, and Tedros was heading back to Geneva, where WHO is based,
(December 26, 2024)
As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about three hours ago (around 5 pm local time), the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport.
The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged. We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave.
Tedros was in Yemen to negotiation the release of UN staffers who have been held hostage by the Houthi movement for several months, and assess the health and humanitarian situation in the country.
With the mission concluded, explained the WHO chief, he and his team were about to board their flight out of the country, when the airport came under attack. As well as two reported deaths, a member of his plane’s crew was injured.
The air traffic control tower and the departure lounge were both damaged. Tedros and his team were just metres away but are unharmed.
Victims from airstrikes in Lebanon “overwhelmed the hospital”, the WHO official explained, insisting that it was critical to continue supporting “the only burns centre that’s available in the country. Off the 40 burns patients treated so far “25 per cent of them are children”, he said.
Initially equipped with 10 beds, the Geitaoui Hospital burns centre has had to expand to 25 beds, providing critical care to severely injured patients.
There are enough new trauma kits to treat 50 patients twice; each kit has two modules, one containing medications and other supplies, the other specialist burns treatments and dressings.
Expressing solidarity with Lebanon’s health professionals, the top UN aid coordinator in the country condemned ongoing military targeting of medical personnel and infrastructure, including ambulances which are “very much under attack”.
“We need to be supporting them with supplies, we need to be supporting them also need with advocacy,” said Imran Riza, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon. “There have been great violations of international humanitarian law that we are seeing. So, we need to make sure these are not happening, that health care workers can do what they‘re there for, helping people and saving lives.”
In the past year, Lebanese medical and health institutions have been attacked 53 times, with 99 patients and staff members killed, according to the WHO.
And due to the deterioration of water and sanitation conditions, a case of cholera was reported in northern Lebanon.
The WHO urged relevant parties to take immediate action to protect Lebanon‘s medical system.
Six medical humanitarian groups, whose emergency medical missions in Gaza have collectively treated over 15,000 patients since October 2023 have been informed this week that their medical missions will hereafter be denied entry into Gaza.
The notice was delivered to these organisations via text message from the World Health Organisation (WHO) following an order issued by the Israeli military via Israel’s ‘Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories’ (COGAT). The reasons behind Israel’s order remain unclear; no information has been provided on the reason or process behind the order to halt life-saving medical missions to Gaza.
This is a death sentence for thousands of patients in Gaza.
The Lebanese health minister announced on Wednesday that the death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon has risen to 1,974, with another 9,384 injured since Oct. 8 of last year.
Firas Alabiad said at a press conference in Beirut that the Israeli onslaught has also claimed the lives of 127 children.
Israeli airstrikes have killed 40 staffers of medical and emergency teams, in addition to damaging dozens of healthcare facilities, he added.
The director of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Thursday that 28 health workers were killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours in Lebanon.
„Many (other) health workers are not reporting to duty and fled the areas where they work due to bombardments,“ Ghebreyesus said in an online press briefing. „This is severely limiting the provision of mass trauma management and continuity of health services.“
WHO‘s representative in Lebanon Dr Abdinasir Abubakar told the briefing that all of the healthcare workers killed in the past day had been on duty, helping with the wounded.
A total of nearly 2,000 people have been killed, including 127 children, and 9,384 injured since the start of Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, the country‘s health ministry said. The WHO said this included 73 healthcare workers.
At least a quarter of Palestinians wounded in Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip have suffered “life-changing injuries”, with many requiring amputations and other “huge” rehabilitation needs, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
In a statement issued yesterday, the WHO explained that at least 22,500 of the people injured in Gaza in the 11 months since the war erupted will “require rehabilitation services now and for years to come.”
At least one quarter or 22 500 of those injured in Gaza by 23 July are estimated to have life-changing injuries that require rehabilitation services now and for years to come, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) analysis of the types of injuries resulting from the ongoing conflict in Gaza: Estimating Trauma Rehabilitation Needs in Gaza using Injury Data from Emergency Medical Teams.
Israels Regierungschef Benjamin Netanyahu hatte kürzlich erklärt, die israelische Armee werde ungeachtet der internationalen Kritik und unabhängig von einer möglichen Einigung auf ein Abkommen über eine Waffenruhe im Gazastreifen ihre Pläne für eine Bodenoffensive in Rafah umsetzen.
“Gaza has become a death zone,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General told correspondents at a press briefing in Geneva.
“Much of the territory has been destroyed. More than 29,000 people are dead; many more are missing, presumed dead; and many, many more are injured,” he added.
Across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, severe malnutrition has shot up dramatically since the start of the war on 7 October, from under one per cent of the population, to over 15 per cent in some areas.
“This figure will rise the longer the war goes on and supplies [are] interrupted,” Tedros said, expressing deep concern that agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) are unable to access the north.
While in Gaza, Mr. McGoldrick visited the southern city of Rafah, located on the border with Egypt, and a crossing point for aid into the enclave.
Rafah normally has a population of around 280,000, which has swelled to an estimated 1.2 to 1.4 million as people fleeing fighting elsewhere pack into the city, setting up makeshift shelters and tents in the streets.
The squalid and unsanitary conditions have led to outbreaks of respiratory infections and hepatitis A, both of which had been eradicated in Gaza. Meningitis and other illnesses are also emerging.
The conflict in Gaza has displaced over 75 per cent of the population, with nearly 1.7 million people now living in UNRWA and public emergency shelters as well as informal sites.
(19.01.2024)
“Mothers face unimaginable challenges in accessing adequate medical care, nutrition and protection before, during and after giving birth,” said UNICEF Communications Specialist Tess Ingram.
“Becoming a mother should be a time for celebration. In Gaza, it‘s another child delivered into hell.”
Echoing deep concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation, UN World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed alarm that hepatitis A infections had been confirmed in Gaza.
Article 7
1. There are established as principal organs of the United Nations: a General Assembly, a Security Council, an Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice and a Secretariat.
(…)
Article 94
1. Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice in any case to which it is a party.
2. If any party to a case fails to perform the obligations incumbent upon it under a judgment rendered by the Court, the other party may have recourse to the Security Council, which may, if it deems necessary, make recommendations or decide upon measures to be taken to give effect to the judgment.
(…)
Article 96
– The General Assembly or the Security Council may request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on any legal question.
– Other organs of the United Nations and specialized agencies, which may at any time be so authorized by the General Assembly, may also request advisory opinions of the Court on legal questions arising within the scope of their activities.
The Post’s analysis shows:
– The rooms connected to the tunnel network discovered by IDF troops showed no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas.
– None of the five hospital buildings identified by Hagari appeared to be connected to the tunnel network.
– There is no evidence that the tunnels could be accessed from inside hospital wards.
Hours before IDF troops entered the complex, the Biden administration declassified U.S. intelligence assessments that it said bolstered Israel’s claims. In the aftermath of the raid, Israeli and U.S. officials have stood firm behind their initial statements.