GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Munir al-Bursh, Director-General at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, has warned that a humanitarian truce must not be a pause for silence but “a chance to save those still alive.”
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, al-Bursh said, “A truce means nothing if it does not turn into a real opportunity to save lives. Every delay is measured by a new funeral, and every silence means another child dying in his mother’s arms without medicine or milk.”
He explained that the wounded are crying out for help and children are starving in the shadow of a temporary truce “strangled by hesitation and international silence.”
Al-Bursh called for immediate and urgent measures to save lives, beginning with emergency medical evacuation for patients with critical brain and spinal injuries, as well as those in need of complex surgeries requiring technologies unavailable in Gaza. He stressed that patients whose survival depends on urgent treatment abroad must be transferred without delay.
He also underscored the urgent need for medical and therapeutic food supplies, particularly therapeutic milk for children and infants, high-protein and high-calorie supplements such as Ensure, concentrated glucose solutions (20% and 50%), ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), and intravenous antibiotics. He further stressed the importance of bringing in protein sources such as meat, eggs, and dairy, in addition to sugar.
In earlier remarks, al-Bursh revealed that 70% of essential medicines are unavailable in Gaza’s hospitals and health centers, deepening the medical crisis amid the ongoing assault. Of 38 hospitals that once functioned in the Strip, only 15 remain partially operational.
He added that the occupation army has killed 1,590 health workers, including nearly 200 doctors, during the war. Another 1,360 health workers, including prominent doctors Hossam Abu Safiya and Marwan al-Hems, are currently detained by Israeli occupation forces.
Al-Bursh stressed, “Images of hunger in Gaza speak louder than any Israeli propaganda.” He warned that 40,000 infants and 250,000 children face the threat of slow death within six months due to malnutrition.
He also noted that the Ministry of Health has recorded 320 miscarriages among women in Gaza as a result of malnutrition, along with nearly 19,000 cases of acute diarrhea, half of them in children, caused by pollution and rising water salinity.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, backed by the United States, has waged a genocidal war in Gaza, involving mass killings, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, in defiance of international appeals and rulings by the International Court of Justice to halt the assault. The ongoing genocide has claimed the lives of 62,004 Palestinians, left 156,230 wounded, more than 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and famine that has already killed 263 people, including 112 children.
