Bengaluru — The World Health Organisation (WHO) said a staff member was released on Sunday more than four weeks after being detained in Gaza by Israeli forces.
“Extremely relieved that our colleague, detained since July 21 in Gaza, was released this morning,” agency director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X. He reiterated a call for protection of all WHO personnel, as well as health and humanitarian workers.
In July, the UN agency said the Israeli military had attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah.
During that time, the WHO said two of its staff members and two family members were detained by Israeli forces. Three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention.
Last week, a global hunger monitor determined that famine has struck an area of Gaza and was likely to spread over the next month, an assessment that could escalate pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
The WHO described the health sector in Gaza as being “on its knees”, with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent mass casualty influxes.
Reuters
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