Khaberni - The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday that Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, and the European Union countries were among the biggest recipients of patients and the injured from the Gaza Strip, expressing his gratitude to all these countries.
Ghebreyesus expressed during a press conference his concerns about the humanitarian situation, noting that about 15,600 patients are still waiting for medical evacuation, including 3,800 children.
He added, "Currently, we can only perform evacuations once a week. I urge more countries to receive these patients and call for the resumption of medical evacuations to the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and to increase the frequency of evacuations."
He mentioned that two years of war have led to the destruction of the healthcare system and significant suffering for the Palestinian people.
About 42,000 people in the Gaza Strip suffer from life-altering injuries due to the ongoing war, with a quarter of these injuries occurring among children, according to a report published by the World Health Organization of the United Nations.
Ghebreyesus clarified that since the beginning of the conflict, the World Health Organization has supported the evacuation of 7,841 patients to receive medical treatment outside Gaza. Since the closure of the Rafah crossing in May last year, the World Health Organization has taken responsibility for coordinating all medical evacuation operations. Most of these operations involve trauma injuries, cancer treatments, heart diseases, eye care, and congenital deformities.
Since the initiative's launch in March of this year, Jordan has received 749 people from Gaza including 220 patients accompanied by 529 family members in multiple batches, transported by land and air.
These efforts continue the Jordanian efforts led by His Majesty King Abdullah II, to support the brethren in the Gaza Strip and assist them on various humanitarian and medical levels.
