Statement by heads of OCHA, UNICEF, UNOPS, UNRWA, WFP and WHO
For over a month, no commercial or humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza.
More than 2.1 million people are trapped, bombed and starved again, while, at crossing points, food, medicine, fuel and shelter supplies are piling up, and vital equipment is stuck.
Over 1000 children have reportedly been killed or injured in just the first week after the breakdown of the ceasefire, the highest one-week death toll among children in Gaza in the past year.
Just a few days ago, the 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme during the ceasefire had to close due to flour and cooking gas shortages.
The partially functional health system is overwhelmed. Essential medical and trauma supplies are rapidly running out, threatening to reverse hard-won progress in keeping the health system operational.
The latest ceasefire allowed us to achieve in 60 days what bombs, obstruction and lootings prevented us from doing in 470 days of war: life-saving supplies reaching nearly every part of Gaza.
While this offered a short respite, assertions that there is now enough food to feed all Palestinians in Gaza are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low.
We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life.
New Israeli displacement orders have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee yet again, with no safe place to go.
No one is safe. At least 408 humanitarian workers, including over 280 from UNRWA, have been killed since October 2023.
With the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza now in its second month, we appeal to world leaders to act – firmly, urgently and decisively – to ensure the basic principles of international humanitarian law are upheld.
Protect civilians. Facilitate aid. Release hostages. Renew a ceasefire.
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Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Catherine Russell, Executive Director, UNICEF
Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director, UNOPS
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA
Cindy McCain, Executive Director, WFP
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO
Amy Pope, Director-General, IOM
Landscape report of diagnostics for fungal priority pathogens
The new diagnostics report shows that while commercially available tests exist for fungal priority pathogens, these rely on well-equipped laboratories and trained staff, which means that most people in in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) do not benefit from them. All countries, but particularly LMICs, need faster, more accurate, cheaper and easier testing for a broad range of fungal priority pathogens, including diagnostic tools that can be used at or near point-of-care.
There are many challenges with existing antifungal diagnostics; they work only for a limited range of fungi, are insufficiently accurate and take a long time to obtain results. Most of the tests are not well suited to primary and secondary health facilities as certain diagnostics require stable electricity supplies within suitable and equipped laboratories.
Health workers often have insufficient knowledge about fungal infections as well as the impact of fungi growing more resistant to treatments, resulting in limited ability to perform the testing needed to determine the appropriate treatment. WHO calls for strengthening the global response against invasive fungal diseases and antifungal resistance, and is also developing an implementation blueprint for the FPPL.