The UN’s health agency announced on Wednesday that its workers will stay put in Gaza City, despite Israel’s military urging civilians to evacuate amid an intensifying assault on the area. In a post on its X account, the World Health Organization stated, “To civilians in Gaza: WHO and partners remain in Gaza City.” Israel’s army has ramped up its operations in Gaza City, the primary urban hub in the besieged Gaza Strip, aiming to take control of it, and this week issued warnings for residents to flee. The UN estimates that about one million Palestinians reside in and around the city.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed outrage over the latest evacuation order in a post on X, noting that directing one million people to a so-called “humanitarian zone” in southern Gaza is not viable. “The zone has neither the size nor scale of services to support those already there, let alone new arrivals,” he explained. He highlighted that half of Gaza’s remaining operational hospitals are located in Gaza City, and the already strained health system cannot withstand the loss of these critical facilities.
Tedros called on the international community to intervene, emphasizing that the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza is entirely human-made and that responsibility lies with everyone involved. Israel has been conducting military operations in Gaza since October 2023, in response to a deadly Hamas attack that killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli data.
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