Gaza on brink of famine, says WHO chief

(AFP): Two million people are “starving” in the Gaza Strip, with the deliberate blocking of aid driving up the risk of famine, the World Health Organization chief warned Monday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO and other UN agencies stood ready to deliver aid into the Palestinian territory – if and when it is allowed to enter.

Israel has said its blockade since March 2 was aimed at forcing concessions from the Palestinian group Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday it was necessary for Israel to prevent a famine in Gaza for “diplomatic reasons” after his government announced it would allow in limited food aid.

“Two months into the latest blockade, two million people are starving,” Tedros said, while 160,000 metric tonnes of food “is blocked at the border just minutes away”.

 “The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade.”

Speaking at the opening of the annual World Health Assembly, Tedros said that increasing hostilities, evacuation orders, shrinking humanitarian space and the Gaza aid blockade were “driving an influx of casualties to a health system that is already on its knees”.

“People are dying from preventable diseases as medicines wait at the border, while attacks on hospitals deny people care, and deter them from seeking it,” he said.

Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would “take control” of the whole of Gaza, as the military pressed a newly intensified campaign in the war-ravaged territory, which Israel says aims to free hostages and defeat Hamas.

Tedros said that since November 2023, the WHO had supported medical evacuations of more than 7,300 patients, including 617 cancer patients, from the Gaza Strip.

However, more than 10,000 patients still needed medical evacuation out of Gaza, he added.

“We ask member states to accept more patients, and we ask Israel to allow these evacuations, and to allow urgently-needed food and medicine to enter,” said Tedros.

“WHO stands ready, with our UN partners, to move rapidly to deliver it if and when it is allowed to enter.

“I hope peace will prevail that can transcend generations. War is not the solution.”