WHO chief, in tears, begs Israel to show 'mercy' amidst its strikes, use of hunger as weapon in Gaza

Fighting back tears, the head of the World Health Organization [WHO] has urged Israel to have "mercy" in its genocide in Gaza and insisted peace would be in Israel's own interests.

In an emotional intervention at the WHO annual assembly on Thursday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the genocidal war was hurting Israel and would not bring a lasting solution.

"I can feel how people in Gaza would feel at the moment. I can smell it. I can visualise it. I can hear even the sounds. And this is because of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)," said Tedros, 60, who has often recalled his own wartime upbringing in Ethiopia.

"You can imagine how people are suffering. It's really wrong to weaponise food. It's very wrong to weaponise medical supplies."

The United Nations on Thursday began distributing around 90 truckloads of aid which are the first deliveries into Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2.

Tedros said only a political solution could bring a meaningful peace.

"A call for peace is actually in the best interests of Israel itself. I feel that the war is hurting Israel itself and it will not bring a lasting solution," he said.

"I ask if you can have mercy. It's good for you and good for the Palestinians. It's good for humanity."

'Systematic' destruction

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said that 2.1 million people in Gaza were "in imminent danger of death".

"We need to end the starvation, we need to release all hostages and we need to resupply and bring the health system back online," he said.

"As an ex-hostage, I can say that all hostages should be released. Their families are suffering. Their families are in pain," he added.

The WHO said Palestinians in Gaza were suffering acute shortages of food, water, medical supplies, fuel and shelter.

Four major hospitals have had to suspend medical services in the past week, due to their proximity to hostilities or evacuation zones, and attacks.

Only 19 of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain operational, with staff working in "impossible conditions", the UN health agency said in a statement.

"At least 94 percent of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed," it said, while north Gaza "has been stripped of nearly all health care".

It said that across the Palestinian territory, only 2,000 hospital beds remained available -- a figure "grossly insufficient to meet the current needs".

"The destruction is systematic. Hospitals are rehabilitated and resupplied, only to be exposed to hostilities or attacked again. This destructive cycle must end."

Genocide of besieged population

The Israeli army has pursued a genocide against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 64,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, rejecting international demands for a ceasefire.

The dead include some 11,000 Palestinians feared buried under rubble of annihilated homes.

Experts, however, contend that the actual death toll significantly exceeds what the Gaza authorities have reported, estimating it could be around 200,000.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Israel has severely damaged neighbourhoods, exhumed mass graves, desecrated cemeteries, bombed shops and businesses, destroyed hospitals and morgues, driven tanks and bulldozers over corpses, tortured jailed Palestinians, subjected detainees to mock executions, and also committed sexual assault against Palestinians.

Exhibiting sadistic behaviour during the genocide, Israeli soldiers have taunted Palestinian prisoners by claiming they were playing football with their children's heads in Gaza.

Videos have emerged showing Israeli forces looting Palestinian homes, destroying children's beds, setting homes on fire, and mocking displaced Palestinians by wearing their undergarments and stealing children's toys. These videos have been live-streamed by soldiers.

In their mission to erase Palestine, Israeli troops have killed a record number of babies, medics, athletes, and journalists — unprecedented in any war in this century.

Israel's former military general, Yair Golan, earlier this week accused Tel Aviv of murdering Palestinian infants for sport and seeking to expel millions of Palestinians from besieged Gaza.

"Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah state among the nations — like the South Africa of old — if it does not return to behaving like a sane country," said Golan on Tuesday.

"A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby, and does not set goals involving the expulsion of populations," he told Israel's Kan public radio.

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Source: TRT