WHO Chief: 116,000 tons of food held at the border while Gaza is starving

This came in a speech on Monday during the opening of the 78th session of the World Health Assembly, the highest decision-making body of the World Health Organization, in the Swiss city of Geneva.

At the meeting opening in the UN office at Geneva, Philippine Health Minister Teodoro Javier Herpes was elected president of the assembly.

In his opening speech, Ghebreyesus said the UN organization had succeeded in preventing the spread of polio through a vaccination campaign carried out in the Gaza Strip.

“Two months have passed since the latest Israeli blockade on Gaza has been imposed. Two million people are suffering from hunger, while 116,000 tons of food are being held at the border. The ongoing blockade is deliberately blocking the entry of humanitarian aid, including food, into Gaza, increasing the risk of famine,” he added.

“The escalation of fighting, evacuation orders and the prevention of aid entry are causing many casualties amid an already collapsed health system,” he underscored.

With unconditional US support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 174,000 Palestinians martyred or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons.