LAST UPDATE | 11 Sep

THE WORLD HEALTH Organisation’s (WHO’s) Deputy Director General, Dr Mike Ryan, has said he is “almost entirely disillusioned with the world” as the people of Gaza are “abandoned”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, the Irish doctor said there are crises where geography and conflict make it difficult to reach civilians in need, but Gaza is not one of them.

“This is a tiny, easily accessible area but we cannot get basic supplies in, and children are being intentionally starved as a weapon of war,” he said.

“Hostages need to be released and there needs to be a ceasefire now.”

His comments came as the WHO confirmed it would continue operating in Gaza City despite Israeli military orders for civilians to evacuate ahead of intensified assaults.

“To civilians in Gaza: WHO and partners remain in Gaza City,” the organisation said in a statement.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “appalled” by Israel’s demand that Gaza City’s one million residents flee to the south, describing the so-called humanitarian zone there as too small and lacking the services to cope with displaced people.

Half of the hospitals still functioning in Gaza are in Gaza City, Tedros warned, and losing them would be catastrophic for the enclave’s health system.

He urged the international community to act, insisting the crisis is “human-made” and that responsibility “rests with us all”.

Dr Ryan praised the support shown for Palestine by the Irish people, government and NGOs, describing hunger and occupation as “cultural triggers in our society”.

“I just wish to God that they were cultural triggers in other societies because the Irish can’t do it alone,” he said.

Dr Ryan, who has long worked on global health emergencies, also warned of the wider dangers of leaving children behind.

“We fail to see that the most dangerous thing to our civilisation and society is someone with nothing left to lose,” he said.

He noted parallels at home, responding to new ESRI research showing one in five Irish children live below the poverty line after housing costs.

“Poverty isn’t just the euros in your pocket,” he said.

“It is exclusion, isolation and mental health. We are leaving a lot of children behind us.”

While he acknowledged efforts by the Irish Government to address child poverty in a multi-dimensional way, he stressed the need for universal supports.

“I don’t think I’d ever have got to college without free access to medicine, free access to dentists, our free education system,” Dr Ryan said.

“We’ve done this before as a society in the 1960s. We need to ask children what they need and we need to invest in communities that serve those children.”

Meanwhile, the regional fallout in the Middle East continued as Israel said this morning it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

The launch came a day after Israeli strikes killed 35 people and injured more than 130 in the Huthi-controlled capital Sana’a and Jawf province.