GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) decided on Thursday to maintain the ongoing public health emergency in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, in light of the deepening humanitarian and health crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The decision was adopted with 27 votes in favor out of 34 members. Only one member, Israel, voted against the resolution, while four abstained and three were absent.
The Executive Board condemned the repeated and direct attacks on healthcare facilities and medical personnel, labeling them as serious and flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
The resolution emphasized the urgent need to establish immediate, safe, and unimpeded humanitarian corridors. It also called for the entry of medicines, medical supplies, and fuel, the protection of ambulance movement and medical teams, and the evacuation of patients and wounded, numbering 18,500 according to WHO estimates, for treatment outside Gaza.
The resolution reaffirmed the international community’s commitment, through WHO, to protect Palestinian civilians and uphold the right to health, ensuring that humanitarian work continues free from politicization or coercion.
The decision comes amid an unprecedented humanitarian and health disaster in Gaza caused by the Israeli genocidal war, which has led to the widespread destruction of hospitals, health centers, and ambulances, as well as the direct targeting of medical and humanitarian personnel.
Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, expressed appreciation for the countries that supported the resolution. He stressed the need for collective action by member states and WHO to improve the health situation in Palestine.
Khraishi noted that the resolution reflects the reality on the ground and provides clear protection for the emergency response and humanitarian efforts. He emphasized that safeguarding Palestinian health is a humanitarian and moral duty that must not be politicized, especially in the face of systematic targeting of civilians, health facilities, and medical staff.
He cited a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stating that 1,582 doctors and aid workers have been killed by Israeli forces, along with 320 Palestinian detainees who died due to medical neglect.
Khraishi underscored that maintaining the state of emergency is not a political choice but a critical humanitarian necessity to ensure WHO’s operations under its mandate and to prevent the total collapse of the Palestinian health system, despite Israeli efforts to terminate the emergency status.
He concluded by stating that Israel’s ongoing attacks on the health and humanitarian systems, including the targeting of 95% of health facilities either completely or partially and the banning of 37 relief organizations (22 of which operate in the health sector), have worsened the existing humanitarian crisis.
