Head of the World Health Organization: A child is killed every ten minutes in the Gaza Strip

(Patria) - A child is killed on average every ten minutes in the Gaza Strip, said on Friday the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to the United Nations Security Council, Reuters reported.

He said that half of the 36 hospitals in Gaza and two-thirds of its primary healthcare centers are not functioning, and that those that are operating are far beyond their capacity, describing the health system as "on its knees".

"Hospital corridors are overflowing with the injured, the sick, the dying. Morgues are overflowing. Surgeries without anesthesia. Tens of thousands of displaced people taking shelter in hospitals," Tedros told the Security Council.

"On average, one child dies every 10 minutes in Gaza," Tedros said.

Since October 7, the WHO has confirmed more than 250 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and the West Bank, while there have been 25 attacks on similar facilities in Israel, Tedros said.

Tedros recalled growing up during the war in Ethiopia, saying he understood what the children of Gaza must be going through.

"The sound of gunfire and shells whistling through the air, the smell of smoke after they hit, tracer bullets in the night sky, the fear, the pain, the loss – these things have stayed with me throughout my life," he said.