United Nations, February 22.- Twenty United Nations organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), denounced the more than 370 attacks by Israel against health care in Gaza since last October 7.
The accusation made reference to the enclave's collapsed health system, in which only 12 of the 36 hospitals with hospitalization capacity continue to partially function.
Diseases proliferate. Famine stalks. Water is scarce. Basic infrastructure is decimated. Food production has come to a standstill. Hospitals have become battlefields. One million children suffer daily trauma, they said in a joint statement.
In the text they highlighted how the city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced people are gathered, has become another battlefield of this brutal conflict.
A new escalation of violence in this densely populated area would cause mass casualties. It could also deal a fatal blow to a humanitarian response already on its knees, they noted.
The statement stated that more than three quarters of the population have been forced to leave their homes, in many cases multiple times, and face severe shortages of food, water, sanitation, healthcare and basic needs to survive.
Even as humanitarian workers, similarly faced with bombings, deaths, restrictions on movement and a breakdown in civil order, continue to strive to care for those in need.
The complainant organizations pointed out that there are too many obstacles, such as security and movement restrictions, to provide the necessary humanitarian aid.
They also called on Israel to fulfill its legal obligation under international humanitarian and human rights law to provide food and medical supplies and facilitate relief operations, and on world leaders to prevent an even worse catastrophe. (Text and photo: PL)
