WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the new ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon, which took effect Wednesday, but he noted that health needs in Gaza remain huge and “will only increase” with the onset of winter cold and rains.   While there is an opportunity now to rebuild southern Lebanon’s shattered health infrastructure, […] Continue reading ->
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed to Israel to reverse this week’s decision by the country’s Knesset, or parliament, to close the Jerusalem-based operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), saying that “there is simply no other alternative to UNRWA.”  Tedros also said that the third phase […] Continue reading ->
The final phase of a planned polio campaign in northern Gaza has been postponed due to escalating violence in the area, the World Health Organization announced on Wednesday. “Due to the escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders, and lack of assured humanitarian pauses across most of northern Gaza, the Polio Technical Committee for Gaza… […] Continue reading ->
The second round of polio vaccinations for Gaza’s children are due to begin on Monday – but the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) is assessing whether it may be affected by Israel’s renewed military activity in northern Gaza, including evacuation orders for three hospitals over the past 48 hours. WHO EMRO officials […] Continue reading ->
Israelis in southern and northern Israel huddled in shelters under missile and rocket fire from Gaza’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Palestinians in northern Gaza were being forced to relocate away from yet another incursion of Israeli tanks into densely populated urban areas, including Jabalia refugee camp. Lebanese in southern Lebanon fled at a thickening […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization and UNICEF have appealed for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in the grinding Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in August and September to facilitate a massive polio booster campaign – as three suspected polio cases were being investigated by a Jordanian laboratory. The appeal came as the entire region see-saws between the possibility […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to begin a major polio booster vaccination campaign in Gaza next week with the dispatch of over 1.2 million vaccines to the war-torn Palestinian enclave – against a backdrop of spiralling regional tensions.   WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned again on Wednesday that the presence of polio virus […] Continue reading ->
Updated: The World Health Organization confirmed Tuesday evening that it had evacuated 85 severely ill and wounded Gazans to the United Arab Emirates for advanced treatment via Israel’s Ramon airfield.  The complex operation occurred as tensions escalated in the region following the deaths of 12 children in a Golan Heights Druze community –  apparently from […] Continue reading ->