The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) unanimously approved on Sunday a Resolution calling for immediate humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip and demands that Israel allows safe passage for health professionals.
At a time when the United Nations (UN) Security Council could not demand a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, due to the US veto, the 34 member countries of the WHO Executive Council call for an “immediate step “sustained and unhindered” “humanitarian aid” to the Gaza Strip.
The resolution, proposed by Afghanistan, Morocco, Qatar and Yemen, demands that exit permits for patients, that medicines and medical supplies be provided to civilians and that all people deprived of liberty have access to medical care.
Qatar was the country that chaired today’s session, which took place throughout the day with interventions from the different WHO member states, and with the participation of the Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai al Kaila.
“We have achieved something that Member States have not achieved in other forumsthe first resolution adopted by consensus since the beginning of the conflict two months ago,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the end of the extraordinary session.
The agreement also requires the passage of ambulances and the evacuation of seriously ill and injured people and demands “the respect and protection of all health and humanitarian personnel”, after more than 500 attacks against the health network in the West Bank and in Gaza since October.
It also calls for Israel, as the occupying power, to “respect the right to health of all people in the occupied Palestinian territory,” which means providing unrestricted humanitarian aid and, if necessary, granting exit permits to patients who require treatment outside Gaza.
The resolution also calls on the WHO to urgently convene a donor conference before the next World Health Assembly in 2024 to fund the health needs of the Palestinian territories and rebuild their damaged health system.
It also calls on the international community to Ensure adequate funding to support healthcare needs. of the Palestinian territories and help with the reconstruction of the health system in the West Bank and Gaza.
According to Tedros, the resolution “does not solve the crisis, but it is a platform from which to build.”
“I understand Israel’s need to protect its people from attacks and to live in peace and security, but I also understand the same need on the part of the Palestinian people, and I want to believe that both are possible and not mutually exclusive,” he said. director general of the WHO.
The resolution of the 34 member countries of the Executive Council also expresses “great concern” about the humanitarian situation and the “widespread destruction” and calls for the protection of all civilians.
Despite accepting the resolution, Some Western countries have expressed reservations.. The US representative said Washington agreed not to oppose consensus on the text, but has “significant reserves”stating that he “regrets the lack of balance in the resolution.”
For Canada, the text is a “compromise resolution” that could also have denounced Hamas’s role in the conflict, the taking of hostages and “the use of human shields.”
As soon as the resolution was approved, it was criticized by Israeli diplomats, who stated in a statement that it “sends a signal to terrorists that the world will look the other way if they kidnap innocent children and women, use local populations as human shields and use hospitals as terrorist headquarters.
“A WHO resolution that makes no reference to the hostages and their health situation, that does not condemn Hamas for terrorism or the use of human shields is a complete moral failure of the international community,” said the Israeli ambassador to the UN in the statement. In Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, who participated in the session.
Until now The WHO convened only six special sessionsoften for global health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in the middle of the last decade.
It was also withdrawn due to internal problems, such as the sudden death of its then general director Lee Jong-wook in 2006 or the recent dismissal of its Asia-Pacific regional manager, accused of abusive behavior and racist comments.
Source: TSF
