GENEVA: More than 30 countries condemned Israel’s attacks on hospitals in Gaza and demanded more scrutiny of its role in the enclave’s health crisis at a World Health Organization meeting on Wednesday, and some blamed Israel for a growing risk of famine.
The WHO has recorded hundreds of attacks on health facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories, which includes Gaza, since the Oct. 7 Israel-Hamas conflict began, but does not attribute blame.
The latest phase of the conflict this month has seen Israel launch a military operation against Rafah, blocking patient transfers, all but cutting off medical supplies and threatening its last functioning hospital.
A group of countries are backing a proposal at the WHO’s annual assembly in Geneva that would mandate the UN health agency to boost documentation of the “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” in Gaza and report on “starvation” amid UN warnings of famine and disease after nearly eight months of conflict.
The motion is supported by over 30 countries mostly from Africa and the Gulf region but also Russia, Turkey and China but even more spoke in favour of it. A vote is expected later on Wednesday.
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