WHO says 'a child is killed every 10 minutes in Gaza' as Israel intensifies strikes

A child is killed on average every 10 minutes in blockaded Gaza, the World Health Organization [WHO] Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has told the United Nations Security Council, warning: "Nowhere and no one is safe."

He said on Friday that half of Gaza's 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary healthcare centres were not functioning and those that were operating were way beyond their capacities, describing the healthcare system as being "on its knees."

"Hospital corridors crammed with the injured, the sick, the dying. Morgues overflowing. Surgery without anesthesia. Tens of thousands of displaced people sheltering at hospitals," Tedros told the 15-member council.

"On average, a child is killed every 10 minutes in Gaza," Tedros said.

Israel has been striking Gaza — an enclave of 2.3 million people — from the air, and has imposed a siege and launched a ground invasion.

Since October 7, the WHO has verified more than 250 attacks on healthcare in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, while there had been 25 attacks on healthcare in Israel, Tedros said.

Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the Security Council that Israel had created a task force to establish hospitals in southern Gaza. On October 12, Israel ordered some 1.1 million people in Gaza to move south ahead of its ground invasion.

Israel in talks with UAE over Gaza hospitals

"Israel is in advanced talks with the United Arab Emirates, with the ICRC and with other European countries regarding the establishment of field-hospital and floating-hospital ships," Erdan said.

"Israel facilitated the Jordanian airdrop of medical aid to hospitals in northern Gaza."

The UAE is establishing a field hospital in Gaza, working in solidarity with local medical personnel and in cooperation with Israel, to help alleviate the suffering, UAE's Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh said. However, she said, this is but "a plaster on a fracture."

She said there can be no doubt that the attacks by Israel "in pursuit of its security" are disproportionate, cruel and inhumane, which she condemned in the strongest possible terms.

The United States is working to try and get fuel to hospitals in Gaza, said deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood, stressing that civilian and humanitarian facilities must be respected and protected under international law.

The Security Council stood for a moment of silence at the start of the meeting to remember civilians killed in Israel and besieged Gaza, along with 101 people working with the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

China says 'enough is enough'

"In the face of all this, the world must speak out together," Ambassador Zhang Jun of China said. "Enough is enough."

"There is no time to lose in saving lives," he said, adding that no future can deviate from the two-State solution. As such, China stands ready to contribute to facilitate peace in the Middle East.

"In all wars, there are laws," Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said, referring to a recent report of Israeli strikes against hospitals and mosques in southern Gaza.

"Safe zones today simply do not exist in the Gaza Strip."