WHA78, Geneva, 19-27 May 2025
Agenda item: 20
Document: A78/16

Chair, Your Excellencies, Director-General

As outlined in the Director-General’s report, health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory are at crisis levels.

In the West Bank, access to healthcare is significantly hindered by movement restrictions, violence, and disruptions to essential services.

Nearly 600 days into the conflict in Gaza, more than 53,000 people have been killed, 121,000 injured, and one in five now faces starvation.

Hospitals are barely functional. Nearly half of all essential medicines and vaccines are depleted, and over 60 per cent of medical supplies are at zero stock.

Meanwhile, attacks on healthcare continue. WHO has verified more than 1,500 such attacks in Gaza and the West Bank since October 2023.

Since 18 March this year, renewed hostilities have:

Destroyed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital,

Damaged the surgical ward at Nasser Hospital,

Hit the ICU and solar panels at al-Durrah Hospital,

Destroyed emergency facilities at al-Ahli Arab Hospital,

Destroyed al-Awda Hospital,

Surrounded the Indonesian Hospital with military activity,

And forced the European Gaza Hospital out of service.

Excellencies,

This must stop.

We must all pause—and reclaim our shared humanity.

We must act to end this immense, man-made suffering.

Following an 80-day blockade, Israel has temporarily allowed a fraction of the aid needed by 2.1 million people enduring 20 months of war, deprivation, and displacement.

This is not enough.

We urgently call for an immediate ceasefire, the sustained lifting of the blockade, the release of all hostages, and a credible path towards an enduring peace.