World is ‘breaking the bodies and minds’ of the children of Gaza – Dr Mike Ryan

An executive director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the world is “breaking the bodies and minds” of the children of Gaza.

Irishman Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme, said people are “complicit” in what is happening in Gaza if they fail to act.

It comes as aid workers warn of an escalating humanitarian crisis following two months of an aid and food blockade.

Speaking this week, Dr Ryan described what is happening to the people of Gaza as an “abomination”.

“We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza,” Dr Ryan said.

“We are starving the children of Gaza, because if we don’t do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes.

“We are complicit. We are causing this, you, us and everyone who does nothing about it, it’s horrific.

“The children of Gaza should not have to pay the price, as all children have done in the past, for the sins of anyone around them. This just has to stop.

“Any right-thinking human being will stand up and say, this just must stop. As a doctor, as a physician, as someone watching more than 1,000 children without limbs, thousands of children with spinal cord injuries and severe head injuries from which they’ll never recover, thousands and thousands of children with severe psychological distress that they may never recover from.

“We are watching this unfold before our very eyes and we’re not doing anything about it. As a physician, I’m angry. I’m angry with myself that I’m not doing enough.

“I’m angry with everyone here. I’m angry with you. I’m angry with the world.

“This should not be happening. It cannot continue. We have to stop.

“This is an abomination. It’s an abomination. We have to ask ourselves the question, how much blood is enough to satisfy whatever the political objectives are of any regime.”

It comes after Tanaiste Simon Harris called on the international community to act now “to avert further disaster”.

“No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza in over eight weeks as a result of the Israeli blockade. Children are starving. Hospitals are running out of basic painkillers,” he said in a statement.

“The World Food Programme has said that its food stocks are now depleted. Life-saving aid is available and urgently needed, but trucks cannot cross into Gaza.

“It is unconscionable that the current suffering is continuing. This is the longest ban on aid entering Gaza since the start of the war.

“The situation is unacceptable. In the circumstances, obstructing life-saving aid is a violation of Israel’s international obligations.

“Ireland calls on Israel to immediately lift the blockade and allow for unimpeded access of humanitarian aid.”