The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) called for a ceasefire in Gaza and a “true solution” to the current Israel-Hamas conflict in an emotional plea to the global health body’s governing body on Thursday.
“I’m a true believer because of my own experience that war doesn’t bring solution, except more war, more hatred, more agony, more destruction. So let’s choose peace and resolve this issue politically,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu told the Executive Board in Geneva during a discussion. “I think all of you have said the two-state solution and so on, and hope this war will end and move into a true solution,” he said, before breaking down, describing the current situation as “beyond words”.
“I’m struggling to speak because… Because the situation [in Gaza] is beyond words.”~ WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
— Syed Zafar Mehdi (@mehdizafar) January 26, 2024
More than 25,000 Palestinians are said to have after Israel unleashed its campaign to eliminate Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, and took over 200 hostages back to Gaza. Tedros, who lived through the war as a child and whose own children hid in a bunker during bombardments in Ethiopia’s 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea, became emotional while describing conditions in the bombed-out Gaza enclave.
The ongoing heavy bombardment, evacuation orders and killing of civilians in Khan Younis, #Gaza is just horrendous.@WHO team joined an @UNRWA mission to help those who were injured in today’s blast at the training centre where civilians were sheltering. Our deep condolences to… https://t.co/diWx3NyJiw— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 24, 2024
Israel’s ambassador said Tedros’ comments represented a “complete leadership failure”. “The statement by the director-general was the embodiment of everything that is wrong with WHO since October 7th. No mention of the hostages, the rapes, the murder of Israelis, nor the militarisation of hospitals and Hamas’ despicable use of human shields,” Meirav Eilon Shahar said in comments sent to Reuters.
She also accused the global health agency of “collusion” with Hamas, saying the WHO turned a blind eye to Hamas’ military activities in Gaza hospitals. In the same address, Tedros warned that more people in Gaza would die of starvation and disease. “If you add all that, I think it’s not easy to understand how hellish the situation is,” he said.
(With agency inputs)
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