WHO chief warns Middle East conflict increasingly impacting regional health services

ISTANBUL

The expanding conflict in the Middle East is increasingly affecting health services across the region, the head of the World Health Organization has warned, following a deadly incident involving paramedics in southern Lebanon.

“The expansion of the conflict in the Middle East is increasingly impacting health services throughout the region,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on Tuesday.

Tedros said he was “saddened” by developments in Lebanon where three paramedics were killed and six others injured while attempting to recover people wounded in explosions in the southern district of Tyre.

He warned that the situation poses growing risks for medical personnel operating in conflict areas.

“The risk that more health workers will count among the casualties is high. This must be avoided at all costs,” he said, stressing that paramedics, doctors and nurses must be allowed to carry out their life-saving work, particularly during crises.

Tedros also urged all parties involved in the fighting to respect international humanitarian law and ensure the protection of medical staff, facilities and patients.

“Warring parties must abide by international humanitarian law and protect health workers, facilities and patients,” he said.

Calling for restraint amid escalating regional tensions, he said: “I call for the utmost restraint and for voices of wisdom and peace to rise above the sound of bombings.”

Tensions have escalated across the region since the US and Israel launched large-scale attacks on Iran on Saturday, and has since killed nearly 800 people, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and top military officials.

Iran has responded with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel as well as Gulf countries, which are home to US military assets.