Gaza children may not survive famine, warns WHO chief

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Children in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza may not be able to survive a famine there, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

"Children who survived bombardment but may not survive a famine," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

He called for allowing more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as well as a cease-fire there.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 30,700 Palestinians have since been killed and 72,156 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.