As the World Health Organization warns of an “imminent public health catastrophe” in Gaza amid Israeli attacks on medical workers and infrastructure, doctors and other frontline medics said Wednesday that only an immediate cease-fire would give them a fighting chance to save countless lives.<\/p>\n
Responding Wednesday to the shutdown<\/a> of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital \u2013 Gaza’s only cancer treatment center \u2013 due to lack of fuel and damage from Israeli airstrikes, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said<\/a> that “no words can describe our concern for the patients who have just lost the only possibility to receive lifesaving cancer treatment or palliative care.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tedros added: “I urge and I plead \u2013 for full medical and fuel aid access NOW! The more we wait, the more we put these fragile lives at risk.”<\/p>\n The WHO chief’s plea came a day after Christian Lindmeier, a spokesperson for the Geneva-based United Nations agency, warned<\/a> that “an imminent public health catastrophe… looms with the mass displacement, the overcrowding, the damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.”<\/p>\n \ud83d\udea8The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the main cancer centre in the Gaza Strip, is no longer functional because of lack of fuel and damage due to airstrikes in its vicinity over the past 48 hours.@WHO<\/a> calls for sustained access at scale for humanitarian aid \u2013\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/0MxMLJknVO<\/a><\/p>\n — WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) November 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n