WHO issues urgent appeal to stop attacks on health facilities in Gaza

At least 1,520 attacks on health facilities amid conflicts across the planet were recorded by the World Health Organization (WHO) throughout 2023. The toll was around 750 patients and health professionals killed and more than 1,250 injured. “We need to prevent this from becoming the norm,” assessed the organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on his profile on the social network X.

In a statement, the WHO highlighted that attacks on health facilities in conflict-affected countries “deprive people of urgently needed care, endanger health care providers and undermine health systems”. The organization calls for health workers around the world to be able to provide care in safe and secure environments, “without disruption caused by acts of violence”.

The WHO defines an attack on health care as any act of verbal or physical violence, obstruction or threat of violence that interferes with the availability, access and delivery of curative and/or preventive services in the context of emergencies. According to the organization, attacks can range from violence with heavy weapons to psychosocial threats and intimidation.

Gaza Strip

Two rounds of polio vaccination campaigns are due to take place in Gaza in late August and early September to halt the spread of the virus in the region. To that end, the WHO last week called for a humanitarian truce in the region.

In a statement, the entity, together with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), asks that all parties involved in the conflict in Gaza implement humanitarian pauses for a period of at least seven days, in order to allow vaccination campaigns against polio to be carried out.

“These pauses in the fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities and community workers to reach children who do not have access to these facilities to be immunized against polio. Without humanitarian pauses, the campaigns will not be possible,” the WHO said.

The expectation is that, in each round of the campaign, more than 640 thousand children under 10 years old will be able to receive the oral vaccine, popularly known as the droplet.