WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday decried the deaths of seven aid workers by Israeli fire while delivering food aid to Palestinians in besieged northern Gaza, demanding a major revamp of “deconfliction” procedures so that aid missions could proceed safely and predictably.  “WHO is horrified by the killing of 7 humanitarian workers […] Continue reading ->
Israel said Monday that its forces had withdrawn from Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest health facility, after two weeks of fierce fighting with Hamas gunmen barricaded inside that destroyed large parts of the facility, including the surgery, maternity and emergency wards.   WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday evening that some 21 patients had died […] Continue reading ->
HARARE, Zimbabwe – The maize meal porridge that their mother had previously blended with peanut butter and sugar for them is now a thing of the past for scrawny 13-year-old Nesbit Chigariro and his three siblings. The family barely has enough food for a single meal a day, as the El Nino-induced drought sweeping southern […] Continue reading ->
A United Nations report released Monday said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence, including rape and gang rape of Israeli women, occurred during the Hamas-led incursion into some 22 Israeli communities near the Gaza border on 7 October. More than 1,200 people were killed in the incident, mostly civilians.  […] Continue reading ->
COPENHAGEN –  While conflict and natural disasters are usually played out in the media against dramatic scenes of mass casualty response and rescue teams, there’s an iceberg of chronic health conditions that can be even more life threatening and these need far greater attention in emergency response.  That is the theme of a global high […] Continue reading ->
International humanitarian law is clear that “even if health care facilities are being used for military purposes, there are stringent conditions which apply to taking action against them, including a duty to warn and to wait after warning”, said Steven Solomon, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) principal legal officer. “Disproportionate attacks are strictly prohibited. All […] Continue reading ->
One year after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake wracked Türkiye and Syria, some 690,000 people  remain displaced in southern Türkiye, out of the 3 million people that initially lost their homes  when the natural disaster hit in the early morning of 6 February 2023.    Another 40,000 Syrians remain internally displaced mainly in the northern region of […] Continue reading ->