UPDATE - WHO warns mild diseases turning 'fatal' with widespread malnutrition in famine-declared Gaza

UPDATES WITH WHO SPOKESPERSON REMARKS IN GENEVA

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The World Health Organization chief warned Friday that even mild illnesses are becoming deadly in Gaza after a food insecurity watchdog formally declared famine in the Gaza Governorate.

"This man-made, widespread malnutrition means that even common and usually mild diseases like diarrhoea are becoming fatal, especially for children," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on US social media company X.

Tedros called for swift action for the millions of people in the enclave, saying: "Gaza must be urgently supplied with food and medicines. Aid blockages must end!"

His remarks came after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed famine in the Gaza Governorate, one of the five regions of the Gaza Strip, where Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

The global hunger monitor also projected that famine will spread to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis within weeks.

- Action needed 'now, without delay'

Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, said on Friday that the IPC report only confirms the long-standing alarm bells raised by the UN.

"We have consistently reported on how, during visits to Gaza, my colleagues and I have witnessed people starving—bodies frail, children visibly malnourished, and health workers weak and exhausted," he told reporters in Geneva from Gaza. "This is the human face of a collapsing health, nutrition, water and sanitation system."

Hunger and malnutrition weaken bodies, fuel disease, cripple health systems, and rob children of their future, Peeperkorn warned.

He stressed: "The situation will certainly get worse quickly as famine stalks other parts of the Gaza Strip too."

The spokesperson demanded an urgent reversal of the situation in the clave, which he described as a "manmade crisis."

"The time for action is now, without delay, nor excuses," he underlined.