By Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean

Gaza: the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe

An entire population cut off from sustained aid. An estimated 40,600 deaths, and the numbers increase daily. Seventy-two per cent of all casualties women and children. Ten thousand people reported missing, most presumed dead under the rubble. Displacement on a colossal scale. Famine and food insecurity. Disease outbreaks. Systematic attacks on civilian spaces and health care. What is happening in Gaza defies belief. It is unconscionable.