WHO to evacuate 1,000 Gazan women, children for urgent medical care

WHO Europe facilitates medical evacuations from Gaza to Europe, condemns attacks on health facilities in Ukraine, and advocates for pandemic preparedness.

Up to 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization's Europe branch said in comments published on Monday, October 21, 2024.

Israel, which is besieging the war-devastated Palestinian territory, “is committed to 1,000 more medical evacuations within the next months to the European Union,” Hans Kluge said in an interview with AFP. He said the evacuations would be facilitated by the WHO -- the United Nations' health agency -- and the European countries involved.

On Thursday, October 17, UN investigators said Israel was deliberately targeting health facilities in Gaza, and killing and torturing medical personnel there, accusing the country of "crimes against humanity".

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in May that around 10,000 people needed evacuating from Gaza for urgent medical care.

The WHO Europe has already facilitated 600 medical evacuations from Gaza to seven European countries since the latest war began there in October 2023.3 "This would never have happened if we did not keep the dialogue (open)," Kluge said. "The same (is true) for Ukraine," he added. "I keep the dialogue (open) with all partners.

"Now, 15,000 HIV-AIDS patients in Donbas, the occupied territories (of Ukraine), are getting HIV-AIDS medications," the 55-year-old Belgian said in English, stressing the importance of "not politicising health".

"The most important medicine is peace," he said, noting that healthcare workers had to be allowed to do their jobs in conflict zones.