Statement: WHO Director-General Dr Tedros on evacuations of patients from Gaza

No images? Click here Thursday January 2, 2025 STATEMENT  Statement by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros on evacuations of patients from Gaza  WHO has repeatedly raised the alarm that patients in Gaza need urgent medical evacuation for life-saving treatment, yet the pace of evacuations remains excruciatingly slow. Only 5383 patients have been evacuated with support from WHO since October 2023, of which only 436 since the Rafah crossing was closed. Over 12,000 people still need medical evacuation. At this rate, it would take 5-10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients, including thousands of children. In the meantime, their conditions get worse and some die. On 31 December 2024, 55 patients and 72 companions were evacuated to the UAE. We thank the United Arab Emirates government for their continued support - they have helped with the medical evacuation of over 1200 patients so far. We also thank Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye, Algeria, Italy, Romania, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Tunisia, Oman, Jordan and the USA for their support with medical evacuations and health care. Too many people's lives remain at risk. We urge Israel to: 1) Increase the approval rate for medical evacuations, including no denials of child patients; 2) Expedite the process of approvals for medical evacuations; 2) Allow all possible corridors and border crossings to be used for safe medical evacuations. We also call on all countries to help by receiving patients and offering specialized health care to prevent more suffering and deaths. https://x.com/drtedros/status/1874867470101561537?s=48&t=BffO9hoLsgnerA7oEU29iQ Media contacts: mediainquiries@who.int   You are receiving this NO-REPLY email because you are included on a WHO mail list. If you have been forwarded this update you can click here to subscribe. Journalists may send feedback to WHO Media Team         Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1202 Geneva 27, Switzerland  Unsubscribe