The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during a speech at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, on May 19, 2025. (Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP.)
Head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged Israel on Thursday to have "mercy" on Gaza and to end the war and the "systematic destruction" of the Palestinian territory's health system.
In a speech in Geneva at the World Health Assembly, the WHO chief said that war would do nothing to bring a lasting solution to the conflict. "A call for peace is actually in Israel’s own best interest. I feel that the war harms Israel itself and that it will not bring a lasting solution," said Tedros, 60. "I ask you to show mercy. It would be good for you [Israel, editor’s note] and good for the Palestinians. It would be good for humanity."
After more than two and a half months of a total blockade of this war-ravaged territory between Hamas and Israel, some 90 trucks delivered humanitarian aid there on Wednesday, according to the U.N. "It is unfair to use food as a weapon. It is really unfair to use medical supplies as a weapon," the WHO chief said Thursday.
About 2.1 million people in Gaza are "in immediate danger of death," according to WHO’s director of health emergencies, Michael Ryan. "We must end the famine, we must free all the hostages [kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel by Hamas, editor’s note], and we must resupply and get the health system back on its feet," he called.
"At least 94% of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed," describes a statement from the U.N. agency, and the northern part of the territory is deprived of "almost all" its health infrastructure. "The destruction is systematic. Hospitals are restored and resupplied, only to be exposed to hostilities or attacked again. This destructive cycle must stop."
The unprecedented attack on Oct. 7, 2023, resulted in the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count from official data. Of the 251 people then kidnapped, 57 remain held in Gaza, including 20 alive "for certain" according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli retaliatory campaign has killed at least 53,762 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Gaza health ministry deemed reliable by the U.N.