GENEVA: The UN health agency on Tuesday said Israel should let it stock medical supplies to deal with a “catastrophic” health situation in Gaza before it seizes control of Gaza City.
Israel has said its military would “take control” of Gaza City in a plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet that sparked a wave of global criticism.
“We want to stock up, and we all hear about ‘more humanitarian supplies are allowed in’ — well it’s not happening yet, or it’s happening at a way too low a pace,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s representative in the Palestinian territories.
Fifty-two percent of medicines were running at zero stock, Peeperkorn said, speaking from Jerusalem.
UN agencies warned last month that famine was unfolding in Gaza, with Israel severely restricting aid entry.
Peeperkorn said the WHO was able to bring in fewer supplies than it wanted “due to the cumbersome procedures” and products “still denied” entry — a topic of constant negotiation with the Israeli authorities.
“We want to as quickly stock up hospitals... following the news — the whole discussion about an incursion in Gaza,” he said.
“We currently cannot do that... We need to be able to get all essential medicines and medical supplies in.”
Peeperkorn said only 50 percent of hospitals and 38 percent of primary health care centers were functioning, and that too partially.
Bed occupancy has reached 240 percent capacity in the Al-Shifa hospital and 300 percent Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza.
“The overall health situation remains catastrophic,” he said. “Hunger and malnutrition continue to ravage Gaza.”
Peeperkorn said 148 people died from the effects of malnutrition this year, citing August 5 as the cut-off date.
Nearly 12,000 children aged under five were identified to be suffering from acute malnutrition in July — the highest monthly figure recorded to date in Gaza, Peeperkorn said.
These include 2,562 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, of whom 40 were hospitalized at stabilization centers.
WHO wants more aid in Gaza before Israeli occupation
https://arab.news/z585a
WHO wants more aid in Gaza before Israeli occupation
- UN agencies warned last month that famine was unfolding in Gaza, with Israel severely restricting aid entry
- Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative, said only 50 percent of hospitals and 38 percent of primary health care centers were functioning
UN-sanctioned migrant smuggler killed in western Libya
- In June 2018, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Al-Dabbashi, along with another five Libyan traffickers
CAIRO: A notorious militia leader in Libya, sanctioned by the UN for migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean Sea, was killed on Friday in a raid by security forces in the west of the country, according to Libyan authorities.
Ahmed Oumar Al-Fitouri Al-Dabbashi, nicknamed Ammu, was killed in the western city of Sabratha when security forces raided his hideout. The raid came in response to an attack on a security outpost by Al-Dabbashi’s militia, which left six members of the security forces severely wounded, according to a statement issued by the Security Threat Enforcement Agency, a security entity affiliated with Libya’s western government.
Al-Dabbashi, who was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for trafficking, was the leader of a powerful militia, the “Brigade of the Martyr Anas Al-Dabbashi,” in Sabratha, the biggest launching point in Libya for Europe-bound African migrants.
Al-Dabbashi’s brother Saleh Al-Dabbashi, another alleged trafficker, was arrested in the same raid, added the statement.
In June 2018, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Al-Dabbashi, along with another five Libyan traffickers. At the time, the UN report said that there was enough evidence that Al-Dabbashi’s militia controlled departure areas for migrants, camps, safe houses and boats.
Al-Dabbashi himself exposed migrants, including children, to “fatal circumstances” on land and at sea, and of threatening peace and stability in Libya and neighboring countries, according to the same report.
Al-Dabbashi was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for the same reason.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The country has been fragmented for years between rival administrations based in the east and the west of Libya, each backed by various armed militias and foreign governments.
