Urges Permanent Armistice In Gaza, WHO Director General: This Is A Matter Of Life Or Death Of Civilians

UNRWA Shelter in Zawaida, Gaza Strip. (Source: UN News/Ziad Taleb)

JAKARTA - The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said the population density followed by a lack of food, water, sanitation to basic cleanliness accelerated the spread of disease in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

In an upload on X's social media, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the lack of functional infrastructure or access to drugs had resulted in an increase in the number of infections among the approximately 1.3 million people displaced in Gaza.

According to Ghebreyesus, more than 110,000 people suffer from acute respiratory infections, more than 70,000 people suffer from diarrhea at certain levels and thousands of people suffer from other diseases including kudis, ticks, skin rashes, impitugo, chickenpox and yellow disease.

Tedros called for a permanent ceasefire and warned that the current conditions in the region are increasing the risk of an outbreak.

"We need a sustainable ceasefire. Now. It's a matter of life or death for civilians," Tedros said.

As previously reported, WHO spokesman Margaret Harris said the number of those who died from the disease in Gaza could be more than the bomb, unless health services in the enclave affected by the Israeli Hamas conflict were restored.

"In the end, we're going to see more people die of illness than by the bombing, if we can't recover this health system," Margaret Harris said.

He described the collapse of Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza as a "tragedy" and voiced concern about the detention of some of his medical staff by Israeli forces.

The hospital was surrounded and later invaded by the Israeli military, which claimed that Hamas militants used it as headquarters. This was denied by hospital officials.

Officials said hundreds of people died in the hospital. Most staff, patients, and refugees at the hospital were asked to leave.