Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director Basic, delivers his speech after inaugurating the WHO Academy campus which promotes lifelong studying throughout the well being sector, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Lyon, central France.
Laurent Cipriani/AP
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Laurent Cipriani/AP
After barely escaping an Israeli airstrike, the top of the World Well being Group is urging Israel to cease attacking well being care services in Gaza.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and a United Nation delegation had been ready to board a aircraft final week on the worldwide airport in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, when Israel attacked the power.
Israel’s army mentioned it struck the worldwide airport as a result of it was allegedly being utilized by Yemen’s Houthi rebels to smuggle Iranian weapons and permit entry for senior Iranian officers. Three folks had been killed and dozens injured.
Per week later, Ghebreyesus informed Morning Version that he has tinnitus attributable to the explosion, which he hopes is short-term.
“The recent experience in Yemen, the same sound? It just comes to my mind every now and then, even from childhood,” mentioned Ghebreyesu. “I know that sound. I know the image. I know the smell. I know it.”
He grew up within the civil war-affected Tigray area of Ethiopia, and he’s aware of the irreversible and traumatic penalties of warfare.
Days after the airport assault, Israeli forces raided one of many final working hospitals in northern Gaza and forcibly eliminated sufferers and employees from the power, the Related Press studies. The Israeli army mentioned the hospital was being utilized by Hamas and that a number of folks it detained participated within the Oct. 7 assault.
The World Well being Group describes the well being disaster in Gaza as depleted and severely under-resourced. Ghebreyesus says the state of Gaza is indescribable, and that hospital performance is dropping as the necessity for medical help continues to rise. Out of the 36 hospitals Gaza had, solely 16 stay partially practical.
“When we call for a ceasefire, we’re saying, ‘please look for the alternative … peace,'” he mentioned. “It’s in the best interest of Israel as well.”
NPR’s Leila Fadel spoke to Ghebreyesus about escaping the airstrikes in Yemen, his name for Israel to cease attacking Gaza’s well being services and the state of the strip general.
The next excerpt has been frivolously edited for readability and size.
Leila Fadel: The Israeli army mentioned it was not conscious you and the U.N. delegation had been on the airport. Do you consider that?
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: I can not actually say something about that. However what I do know is we now have carried out the common notification, what they name UN time period deconfliction protocol and everyone that ought to know was conscious.
Fadel: Together with the Israelis?
Ghebreyesus: That is what I might count on.
Fadel: Since we’re speaking about Yemen, I might like to get into the general public well being challenges. What did you be taught whenever you visited?
Ghebreyesus: A disaster in Yemen has been there for greater than ten years now. Out of the 78 million inhabitants, nearly near half wants humanitarian assist. The cholera outbreak in Yemen is the biggest on earth. Not solely cholera, however measles and polio has returned to the nation. However my mission was not really for the humanitarian state of affairs. It was to barter with the Houthis, to launch our colleagues who’ve been in detention for a while.
Fadel: I need to flip to Gaza the place well being care employees proceed their work beneath nice danger. You lately referred to as on Israel to cease attacking hospitals. What prompted that decision?
Ghebreyesus: The extent of destruction of well being services in Gaza is one thing that we now have by no means seen earlier than. Out of 36 complete hospitals that Gaza has, 20 are out of operate already. The remaining 16 are partially practical. And when hospitals are destroyed like that, whereas the well being wants of the inhabitants is rising, due to trauma, accidents are on the rise, many individuals who may have been saved are dying due to lack of companies. That is why we’re asking Israel to guard well being services.
Fadel: How a lot of the alarm along with your assertion is concerning the current raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza? Now, the Israeli army mentioned among the many 240 folks it took, it included 15 folks they are saying participated within the Oct. 7 assault. I imply, does the reason by the Israeli army that they are doing this to go after Hamas make it acceptable to go after hospitals?
Ghebreyesus: It does not make it acceptable as a result of well being services ought to be protected. And should you see not solely well being services, however the degree of destruction in Gaza is de facto one thing that you simply can not even describe in phrases.
Greater than 45,000 folks have been killed. Greater than 60% are girls and kids. This alone is sufficient to cease the warfare.
I do know warfare. I do know warfare as a toddler. And that is why I hate warfare. The one factor I do know associated to warfare is loss of life. Destruction. After which, after all, those that survive. Displacement. Deprivation. Starvation. That is what I do know. Grief. Moms crying. So, after we name for a ceasefire, we’re saying, please search for the choice, peace. It is in the most effective curiosity of Israel as effectively.
I do not suppose warfare would be the answer.
If we’ll have a win, it is discovering a political answer that may transcend generations for generations to come back. I can really feel it.
