Israel ‘knowingly and intentionally imposing famine’ on Gaza: UN rapporteur
The UN special rapporteur on the right to health warns that the medical evacuation rate in Gaza is “very low”, standing at only “47 percent”. Tlaleng Mofokeng stressed that it was hard to gather data on how many people need medical evacuation due to the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
“There isn’t a systemic, structured, focused and deliberate intent to ensure that people’s rights to health are protected,” Mofokeng told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency in Geneva.
“The point is Gaza should not be evacuating people for support, right? These facilities and the health services should be able to adequately respond to their needs where they live and where they reside,” she said, adding that the world was witnessing a “genocide” in Gaza.
“Not only is Israel killing and causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments, it and their allies are also knowingly and intentionally imposing famine, prolonged malnutrition and dehydration.”
UN expert warns of mental health risks for Palestinians from Israeli war
A UN expert has warned that mental illnesses could manifest themselves years from now among the people of Gaza due to the current Israeli war.
“Acute mental distress that will then turn into anxiety and other kinds of mental illnesses later on in life is really, really important to start thinking intentionally about,” said Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN special rapporteur on the right to health.
UNICEF said in February that an estimated 17,000 children in Gaza were unaccompanied or had been separated from their families during the conflict and nearly all children in the enclave were thought to require mental health support.
“The health system in Gaza has been completely obliterated, and the right to health has been decimated at every level,” Mofokeng said.
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