More people could die from disease than from bombings in the Gaza Strip if its health system is not repaired, a World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday, APA reports citing Reuters.
Gaza health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 people have been confirmed killed in Israel's bombardment of Gaza, around 40% of them children, with many more dead feared to be lost under rubble.
"Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than we are even seeing from the bombardment if we are not able to put back (together) this health system," said the WHO's Margaret Harris at a U.N. briefing in Geneva.
She repeated concerns about a rise in outbreaks of infectious diseases, particularly diarrhoeal diseases.
Citing a U.N. report on the living conditions of displaced residents in northern Gaza, she said: "(There are) no medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene and no food. We saw a very high number of cases of diarrhoea among infants," she said.
She described the collapse of Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza as a "tragedy" and voiced concern about the detention of some of its medical staff by Israeli forces during a WHO evacuation convoy.
James Elder, a spokesperson from the U.N. Children's Agency in Gaza, told reporters by videolink that hospitals in Gaza were full of children with war wounds and gastroenteritis from drinking dirty water.
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