WHO: ‘1,000 women and children soon to be evacuated from Gaza’

Up to 1,000 injured and sick women and children will soon be evacuated from Gaza, Hans Kluge, regional director for Europe at the World Health Organization (WHO), told news agency AFP.

Israel has committed to about “1,000 additional medical evacuations to the European Union in the coming months”, said Kluge. The Belgian doctor stressed that the evacuations would be facilitated by the WHO, in cooperation with the countries involved.

Since October 2023, the WHO has facilitated about 600 medical evacuations from Gaza to seven European countries. “That would never have happened if we had not maintained dialogue,” Kluge said. “The same is true for Ukraine.”

“I maintain dialogue with all partners. Today, 15,000 people with HIV or AIDS in the Donbas, in the occupied territories [of Ukraine], are receiving medication,” he said. “We really have to try not to politicise health.”

For Kluge, who has headed WHO Europe since February 2020 and whose mandate will be renewed at the end of October, “peace is the most important medicine”. It is essential to respect health centres and health workers, especially in conflict zones, he said.

 

An injured child sits next to a woman at Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, August 2024 © PHOTO OMAR AL-QATTAA / AFP


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