WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made an emotional appeal to Israel on Thursday to end its 80-day blockade of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid into Gaza, asking “if you can have mercy?” and adding: “the war is hurting Israel, and it will not bring a lasting solution.” 

Fighting back tears, the Director General said, “People are starving; 81% of Gazans are under constant displacement orders, and the hospitals are on their knees.

“I can feel how people in Gaza would feel. I can visualize it. I can hear the sounds.. It’s really wrong to weaponize food, to weaponize medical supplies,” said the DG, noting he also suffers from PTSD due to his experiences in war-torn Ethiopia as a child.   

“A call for peace is in the best interest of Israel itself. The war is hurting Israel, and it will not bring a lasting solution. So I ask again…I ask if you can have mercy. It’s good for you, and good for the Palestinians and good for humanity,” Tedros said.

“And while saying this, I understand the situation in which the hostages are living,” he added,  referring to his own past meetings with released Israeli hostages.  “But I would still say that the ball is in Israel’s court, and I would expect more from Israel to contribute to lasting peace.”

Tedros was speaking at the end of the second day of bitter World Health Assembly debates over two WHA measures decrying health conditions in the “Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory,” with most of the focus on Gaza. 

Thursday’s resolution, essentially an updated version of a 2023 measure denouncing the devasting impacts on Palestinians of a war that began 7 October with a bloody  Hamas incursion into Israel, was approved by a vote of 114-2, with 55 WHA delegates absent or abstaining.  On Wednesday, another China and Egypt-backed decision on “health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory and occupied Syrian Golan’, passed with a majority of 104-4, after several hours of debate. 

100 trucks of flour and food awaiting final permission to cross into Gaza  

Even as Thursday’s vote was taking place, there were signs that the Israeli blockade may finally be lifting. While only a handful of trucks  entered Gaza over the past few days, nearly 100 trucks filled with flour and other vital supplies were poised to enter Gaza Thursday evening, WHO officials reported, after having crossed the first set of Israeli controls at its Kerem Shalom passage. 

But both WHO delegates as well as UN humanitarian agencies remain nervous about how fast the aid may really move, as well as Israel’s declared plan to start delivering food and medicine directly, through a private United States contractor – sometime in the near future. 

Speaking of the private aid plan on Wednesday, WHO’s head of Health Emergencies Mike Ryan, said cautiously,  “We will work with any mechanism that works.”

But during the two-month ceasefire from January-March, some 25,000 trucks entered Gaza, coordinated by the UN agencies while “other mechanisms, especially those using private subcontractors, have proven themselves to be utterly ineffective and sometimes laughable,” Ryan pointed out. He was referring to a US-engineered plan to deliver aid via the sea in the early phases of the war, before the pontoon bridge delivery system sunk off of the coast of Gaza. 

Half a million Gazans on verge of starvation

Ryan also stressed the urgency of the situation, after more than 80 day blockade, and a situation of famine, or near famine, rated as IPC4-5 hunger crisis, throughout Gaza as per the latest reported of the UN Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

“Half a million Palestinians are currently in Gaza classified as IPC 5. Do you know what IPC five means? It means they will die immediately, unless they receive food and assistance. Now there’s a statistic for you. Go away and think about that,” the veteran WHO emergencies director declared. 

“Israel must live up to and respect its obligations, and should stop using forced starvation against innocent Palestinian civilians,” said Ibrahim Khraishi, Palestine’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, at Thursday’s debate.

Along with the aid blockade, criticism is mounting even among Israel’s staunchest allies over not only the blockade but the expanded assault on Hamas that has shaken Gaza over the past several weeks. WHO and other aid agencies have reported on the repeated forced location of thousands of civilians; shrinking humanitarian spaces; more schools and hospitals shelled, shuttered, or in the line of attack; and dozens of casualties daily, including women and children.  Nearly 53,000 Gaza Palestinians have reportedly been killed since the start of the war, while around 1,700 Israelis have died in the hostilities. 

Member states denounce Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid in Gaza 

On Monday, France, the United Kingdom and Canada issued a stiff warning to Israel on Monday over the deteriorating situation.

 “As my Prime Minister made clear earlier this week in his joint statement with President Macron and Prime Minister Carney, the military escalation in Gaza is wholly disproportionate,” said the United Kingdom’s delegate to the WHA on Thursday. 

“We acknowledge indications of a limited restart of aid, but Israel has blocked humanitarian aid entering Gaza for over two months, food, medicine, essential supplies are exhausted,” the delegate said, while also offering “heartfelt condolences, to Israel over the shooting deaths Wednesday evening of two Embassy employees in Washington DC by an attacker shouting “Free Palestine”. 

“As Mike Ryan said so eloquently …. the population now faces starvation. Gaza’s people must receive the aid they need. Humanitarian principles matter…  We urge Israel to allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately, and to enable the work of the UN and other humanitarian agencies to save lives now,” the UK said.

As for Israel’s recently-announced plan to put in place its own mechanism for delivering humanitarian aid with the support of a US-contractor, France and other delegates, described the plans as “inadequate”, calling on Israel to allow UN agencies to resume their work. 

“An immediate return to the cease fire is essential, including release of all of the hostages and a permanent end to hostilities,” said Poland, in a statement on behalf of the European Union, on Thursday. 

“The EU is deeply concerned about recurring accidents resulting in the death of humanitarian aid workers in Gaza, and calls for accountability, unimpeded humanitarian aid access and distribution, as well as the supply of electricity to Gaza must be resumed immediately

The EU statement also “deplored the refusal of Hamas to hand over the remaining hostages,” saying it was time to “break the cycle of violence, and move toward a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace and security.” 

Iran opposes reference to hostage release; Israel opposes duplicating debates  

In Thursday’s vote, Hungary was the only member state along with Israel to oppose the resolution. But some countries that supported the two measures also expressed reservations over the lack of language holding Hamas accountable for its part in perpetuating the cycle of violence. Thursday’s resolution also contained no reference at all to the 58 Israeli hostages who remain under Hamas control – only 24 of whom may still be alive, the Netherlands noted.  

“We would have liked to see a call for the release of hostages and the condemnation of the appalling violence by Hamas that took place during the during and after the attacks on October 7,” said the Netherlands” delegate.   

On the other side side of the divide, Iran and a handful of allies disassociated their countries from from a reference in Wednesday’s measure calling for  “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in Gaza, including children, women and older persons.”

The same paragraph also called for the “unconditional release of all Palestinian persons arbitrarily detained in Israel and victims of enforced disappearance and immediate humanitarian access to hostages and detainees in line with the International Law (PP26);”

“Iran strongly objects to the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages held in Gaza..and formally disassociates from this part of the paragraph,” the Islamic Republic delegate said.  

Israel’s Ambassador Daniel Meron, meanwhile, protested Thursday’s debate over Gaza as duplicating the hours long session on Wednesday –   highlighting what he described as a waste of resources for the budget-strapped UN health agency. 

“This decision here calls on the DG to report on the health situation in Gaza to three different bodies on four different occasions over the course of one year,” Meron said.

“Israel has never objected to the support program for the Palestinian population. However, we oppose politicizing health during these crucial times for this organization, one would expect to see words put to action when speaking about duplication, overlap and redundancy, poor allocation of resources and time.”

Ukraine debate also a focus on Thursday 

Along with the two measures regarding Gaza and Palestine, a third debate on the brutal war ongoing in Ukraine took up much of the remaining time of WHA delegates on Thursday. 

The decision on “the health emergency in Ukraine and refugee-receiving and hosting countries stemming from the Russian Federation’s aggression,” finally passed by a majority of 59-10 – but with 63 abstentions while 56 member states were absent from the vote altogether. 

An initiative by Belarus, Russia, China and Nicaragua to fold the Ukraine issue into the general WHO reporting on other health emergencies, was rejected by a vote of 50-12, also with 63 abstentions. 

The large number of absent voters or abstentions in the Ukraine polling seemed to reflect, however, advances in Russia’s diplomatic campaign of attrition, which has seen the gradual erosion of support for Ukraine in developing world capitals over a war that is perceived as Europe’s affair – a perception that the new US Administration has now seemed to adopt as well.  

But that doesn’t diminish the crisis still being faced on the ground in Ukraine, which continues to be subject to chronic, relentless Russian bombing of its cities, including thousands of attacks on health care facilities since the war began, according WHO. 

Out of a population of 10 million,  nearly 13,000 have died since the start of the war, according to the WHO’s report to the WHA.

“We have 3.9 million with diagnosably severe psychological stress and mental health disorders,” Ryan said. “More worrying, attacks on health care continue. There have been over 3,380 attacks since the beginning of the conflict (in 2022), but a 32% increase from 2023-2024.  So this is becoming more frequent, and it’s interesting in the context that the area that’s currently in dispute, or where there’s active fighting, is actually smaller than it was at the beginning fo the conflict.”

WHA also making other moves to enhance Palestine’s status

In contrast, the issue of Gaza and Palestine, continues to captivate member states in all regions of the world – from Latin America to Africa and Asia.    

And two more resolutions that make further symbolic enhancements in Palestine’s quasi-state observer status also are on the agenda at this year’s WHA session. 

In a measure approved on Wednesday, member states voted to include Palestine along with other WHO member states in the mechanisms of the International Health Regulations, which monitor, alert and report on potential health emergencies.

Another WHA measure, due to be debated before the end of the session next Tuesday, would allow the flag of Palestine to be flown along with those of other member states at WHO.

Last year, WHO member states voted to grant Palestine quasi-state status, giving it virtually all of the rights and privileges of a member state, short of voting. See related story here:

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/palestine-granted-quasi-who-member-state-status-without-voting-rights/

Image Credits: OCHA, IPC .