The World Health Organization's (WHO) director-general on Thursday called on Israel to allow more medical evacuations from Gaza.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X that "the pace of evacuations remains excruciatingly slow."
He recalled that only "5,383 patients have been evacuated with support from WHO since October 2023, of which only 436 since the Rafah crossing was closed."
The WHO chief stressed that 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," he emphasized.
Tedros thanked a group of countries including Türkiye, Italy, Spain, Jordan, and Ireland "for their support with medical evacuations and health care."
He urged Israel to "Increase the approval rate for medical evacuations, including no denials of child patients," and to "Allow all possible corridors and border crossings to be used for safe medical evacuations."
The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed nearly 45,600 victims, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
