WHO: ‘One thousand women and children soon to be evacuated from Gaza’

Up to one thousand injured and sick women and children will soon be evacuated from Gaza. That announced Hans Kluge, regional director for Europe at the World Health Organization (WHO), in an interview with news agency AFP.

Israel has committed to about “one thousand additional medical evacuations to the European Union in the coming months”, said Kluge. The 55-year-old Belgian doctor stressed that the evacuations would be facilitated by the WHO, in cooperation with the countries involved.

Since October 2023, the WHO has already facilitated about 600 medical evacuations from Gaza to seven European countries. “That would never have happened if we had not maintained dialogue,” Kluge emphasised. “The same is true for Ukraine.”

“I maintain dialogue with all partners. Today, 15,000 people with HIV or AIDS in the Donbas, in the occupied territories [of Ukraine], are receiving medication,” explained the Belgian. “We really have to try not to politicise health.”

For Kluge, who has headed WHO Europe since February 2020 and whose mandate will be renewed at the end of October, “peace is the most important medicine”. That is why it is important to respect health centres and health workers, especially in conflict zones, added Kluge.

^{An injured child sits next to a woman at Al-Ahli Arab hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, in August 2024 © BELGA PHOTO Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP}