19 December 2023 Thank you all for joining us. This is my last media briefing before the year ends, and I am speaking to you today with the heaviest heart as I, like all of us here, witness unimaginable suffering. Our region of over half a billion people is home to 38% of the global population in need of humanitarian aid, which means over 140...

17 December 2023 — WHO staff participated in a joint UN mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza on 16 December to deliver health supplies and assess the situation in the facility. Partners on today’s mission included OCHA, UNDSS, and UNMAS. The team delivered medicines and surgical supplies, orthopedic surgery equipment, and anesthesia...

Geneva, 10 December 2023  Dear colleagues, ladies, and gentlemen, I would like to start by asking for a minute of silence in memory of our WHO colleague Dima Alhaj and all the humanitarian workers who have been killed in Gaza, some with several of their family members, over the past two months. WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region – plagued by some of...

Participants listen to the WHO expert during her presentation. Photo credit: M. Ismaili4 December 2023, Rabat, Morocco – The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean ran a 2-day training programme in Rabat, Morocco, to strengthen the risk assessment capacities of the Moroccan Ministry of Health. Experts from the WHO Regional Office, WHO...

4 December 2023, Cairo/Geneva – Once again, nowhere is safe in Gaza. WHO is gravely concerned about the resumption of hostilities, including heavy bombardment in Gaza, and reiterates its appeal to Israel to take every possible measure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as per the laws of war. We have seen what...

23 November 2023, Cairo, Egypt – The World Health Organization (WHO) and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) today signed a letter of intent to solidify their commitment to collaborative humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip. The letter of intent, for US$ 10 million, was signed by Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional...

22 November 2023, Cairo, Egypt – The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean ran a 2-day capacity-building training for 6 countries to strengthen the safety and preparedness of health facilities to better respond to and manage emergencies and disasters. Participants from Afghanistan, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Oman, Pakistan, Syria...

22 November 2023 – Thank you for joining us today for our regional update on the health emergencies in the occupied Palestinian territory and Sudan.  Before I begin my remarks, I’d like to take a moment to remember Dima Alhaj, our young WHO colleague who was tragically killed yesterday when her parents’ home was bombed. Dima’s husband, 6-month-old baby boy...

Cairo/Geneva/Jerusalem, 21 November 2023 – With heavy hearts, WHO announces the death of one of our staff in Gaza, in the occupied Palestinian territory. Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29 years old, had been with WHO since December 2019. She worked as a patient administrator at the Limb Reconstruction Centre, a critical part of the WHO Trauma...

21 November 2023 – With the world’s attention having turned to the horrifying situation in Gaza, we must remember that the Sudanese people continue to face suffering on a scale that is also catastrophic. The figures coming out of Sudan are staggering: nearly 25 million people need humanitarian aid and 11 million people need urgent health...