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Gaza: Moving vulnerable patients is a ‘death sentence’, says WHO
Gaza: Moving vulnerable patients is a ‘death sentence’, says WHO
Following Israel’s order to the entire population of northern Gaza to relocate to the southern half of the territory within 24 hours, UN humanitarians on Friday raised deep concern for the affected civilians who have faced six days of bombardment in a worsening humanitarian crisis.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a move to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,“ said Rolando Gomez, spokesperson of the UN Office in Geneva. “The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order to be rescinded, avoiding what could transform – what is already a tragedy – into a calamitous situation.” He added that “senior Officials, including the Humanitarian Coordinator, are working to this end and this includes the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland.”
Echoing this message, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that “in the middle of a war zone, with people who are already at the end of the rope – I have rarely seen anything like this – how is that going to happen? There is only one solution and that is to rescind this order, rethink it, allow access for humanitarian agencies to do what they do which is save the lives of civilians.”
On Thursday, the UN launched a flash appeal calling for approximately $ 297 million for 77 humanitarian partners to address the most urgent needs of 1.26 million people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
“This urgent appeal calls for nearly $300 million to address the most urgent needs of more than 1.2 million people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank,” said Mr. Laerke. “Some 100 humanitarian partners are behind the appeal, including 13 United Nations agencies, including UNRWA, and international and national NGOs and the Palestinian Red Crescent.”
Joining the wider UN in appealing to Israel to immediately revoke the orders for the evacuation within the next 24 hours, Tarik Jasarevic from the World Health Organization (WHO) said that “with ongoing airstrikes, civilians have no safe place left to go. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed WHO that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients from the north of Gaza.”
He reminded that “moving severely ill people – and remember, many of those are children – and these severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life-support, such as mechanical ventilators. So, moving those people is a death sentence.”
WHO reported that the health system in Gaza is at breaking point and time is running out to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe if fuel, water, food and life-saving health supplies cannot be urgently delivered to the Gaza Strip.
“What are we hearing from WHO and non-WHO health workers in Gaza is really horrifying,” reported Mr. Jasarevic. “Hospital corridors are overflowing, dead bodies are piling up as there is no more space in morgues. And ambulances and doctors have to make a horrific choice as to who to save and who to leave behind.”
According to the latest numbers of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) over 423,000 people have already been displaced since 7 October. Of them, more than 270,000 have taken refuge in UNRWA shelters, where basic food, medicine and support is provided to retain dignity and a glimmer of hope.
Calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, James Elder, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson said that “hundreds and hundreds of children have now been killed and injured every hour in Gaza. The number of children killed is rising. The killing of children must stop. The images, the stories are clear: Children with horrendous burns, mortar wounds, lost limbs and hospitals are utterly overwhelmed to treat them.”
UNICEF reported that as of Friday, 447 children were killed and with ongoing surgeries this number will rise.
UN human rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that “there are many violations of international humanitarian law that are most likely happening on the ground at the moment in Israel and in Gaza. International humanitarian law grants special protection for specifically protected persons and objects, including medical personnel, medical units, medical transport, humanitarian relief personnel and objects and cultural property – and the parties to the conflict must respect them in all circumstances. Attacks against such people and objects are prohibited and may constitute a war crime.”
OHCHR stressed that civilians must never be used as bargaining chip. It reported that more than 2,700 people, including civilians, have already been killed in both Israel and Gaza.
The UN human rights office “urge(s) Palestinian armed groups to halt the use of inherently indiscriminate projectiles, which violate international humanitarian law, as well as attacks directed against civilians. And we urge Israel to ensure full respect for international humanitarian and human rights law in any and all military operations.”
-ends-
STORY: Escalation Middle East - OCHA - UNICEF - WHO - OHCHR
TRT: 4 min 38s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 13 October 2023 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley, UN Geneva
- Wide shot: speakers at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Rolando Gómez, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section at the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva: “Team leaders of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Department of Safety and Security in Gaza, were informed by their Liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours. This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order applied to the UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities, including schools, health centres and clinics. ”
- Close up, attendees at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Rolando Gómez, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section at the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva: “The United Nations considers it impossible for such a move to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences. The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order to be rescinded, avoiding what could transform – what is already a tragedy – into a calamitous situation. Senior Officials, including the Humanitarian Coordinator, are working to this end and this includes the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland.”
- Middle shot: Photographers at press briefing
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “In the middle of a war zone, with people who are already at the end of the rope – I have rarely seen anything like this – how is that going to happen? There is only one solution and that is to rescind this order, rethink it, allow access for humanitarian agencies to do what they do which is save the lives of civilians.”
- Middle shot, attendees at press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “This urgent appeal calls for nearly 300 million dollars to address the most urgent needs of more than 1.2 million people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Some 100 humanitarian partners are behind the appeal, including 13 United Nations agencies, including UNRWA, and international and national NGOs and the Palestinian Red Crescent.”
- Wide shot: speakers on podium filmed from behind and attendees at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tarik Jašarević, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “With ongoing airstrikes, civilians have no safe place left to go. The Palestinian Ministry of health has informed WHO that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients from the north of Gaza.”
- Wide shot: attendees at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tarik Jašarević, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “Moving severely ill people – and remember, many of those are children – and these severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life-support, such as mechanical ventilators. So moving those people is a death sentence.”
- Close shot: attendee in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Tarik Jašarević, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “What are we hearing from WHO and non-WHO health workers in Gaza is really horrifying. Hospital corridors are overflowing, dead bodies are piling up as there is no more space in morgues. And ambulances and doctors have to make a horrific choice as to who to save and who to leave behind.”
- Wide shot, attendees in press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, Spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “Hundreds and hundreds of children have now been killed and injured every hour in Gaza. The number of children killed is rising. The killing of children must stop. The images, the stories are clear: Children with horrendous burns, mortar wounds, lost limbs and hospitals are utterly overwhelmed to treat them.”
- Wide shot: speakers on podium filmed from behind and attendees at the press conference
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “There are many violations of international humanitarian law that are most likely happening on the ground at the moment in Israel and in Gaza. International humanitarian law grants special protection for specifically protected persons and objects, including medical personnel, medical units, medical transport, humanitarian relief personnel and objects and cultural property – and the parties to the conflict must respect them in all circumstances. Attacks against such people and objects are prohibited and may constitute a war crime.”
- Wide shot: screens and attendees at the press conference
- Close shot, attendee in press room
- Wide shot: screens and attendees at the press conference
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
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- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends