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MADRID 3 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has once again asked the Israeli authorities this Thursday to allow and enable the evacuation of Palestinian patients from Gaza, denouncing that in more than two years of military offensive , “only” 5,383 people with urgent medical needs have left the Strip.
“Only 5,383 patients have been evacuated with the support of the WHO since October 2023, of which only 436 since the Rafah border crossing was closed,” he declared, referring to this crossing in the south of the Palestinian enclave that the Israeli Army It closed in August 2024.
In a statement published on his X social network account, Tedros has estimated “more than 12,000” patients, “including thousands of children”, who urgently need to be evacuated. According to Israel’s actions so far, at an “unbearably slow” pace, “it would take between five and ten years to evacuate all these patients in critical condition,” he warned.
The head of the WHO has lamented that “the lives of too many people remain in danger”, since the Israeli Army began an offensive on the Gaza Strip in response to the attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7, 2023. , which left nearly 1,200 dead and about 240 kidnapped.
Therefore, he has urged the Israeli authorities to approve more medical evacuations, “which includes not denying child patients”, expedite the approval process and allow the use of all possible border crossings to ensure the safety of evacuations. medical.
These statements come after 55 patients and 72 companions were evacuated to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) earlier this week. Tedros took the opportunity to thank the “continuous support” of the Emirati authorities, who have already evacuated more than 1,200 patients.
“We also thank Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Algeria, Italy, Romania, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Tunisia, Oman, Jordan and the United States for their support with medical evacuations and health assistance,” he added, while calling on “all” countries to collaborate in receiving and treating patients from Gaza.