WHO denies Israeli accusation of 'collusion' with Hamas
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The WHO Director-General is responding to charges made Thursday by Israeli Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar at a UN health agency board meeting.
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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks to journalists during a press conference at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 6, 2023. (AP)
The World Health Organization has dismissed "Israel's" accusation that it is collaborating with the Palestinian Resistance, Hamas, by disregarding Israeli "proof" of "military use" of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, such claims might harm the organization's workers on the ground.
Tedros is responding to charges made Thursday by Israeli Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar at a UN health agency board meeting.
WHO refutes Israel's accusation at the Executive Board meeting yesterday that WHO is in “collusion” with Hamas and is “turning a blind eye” to the suffering of hostages being held in Gaza. Such false claims are harmful and can endanger our staff who are risking their lives to…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 26, 2024
Ghebreyesus refuted the false accusations and called them "harmful" to workers involved in Gaza who are “risking their lives to serve the vulnerable."
“As a United Nations agency, WHO is impartial and is working for the health and well-being of all people.”
Shahar responded to Ghebreyesus on X, citing "clear evidence" that Israeli captives were taken to medical institutions after October 7. Like other Israeli officials, she vaguely cites CCTV footage and first-hand accounts as "proof".
There is clear evidence of the use of hospitals by Hamas and the fact that hostages were taken to medical institutions after the brutal massacre of October 7th. This includes first hand accounts and CCTV footage. These are not “false claims”. They are facts. Yet you have said… https://t.co/jgeXOJxA67
— Meirav Eilon Shahar 🇮🇱 (@MeiravEShahar) January 26, 2024
She ignores the ongoing attacks on hospitals in Gaza and the invading Israeli forces storming Wednesday Al-Khair Hospital, west of Khan Younis.
Shahar also disregards the fact that the Israeli occupation has shown little regard for Israeli captives in Gaza, seeking instead to destroy Gaza and kill as many Palestinians as possible.
Back in October, with the onset of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, an Israeli pilot hypothesized that the Hannibal directive was implemented on October 7. Lt. Col. Nof Erez, in an interview for Haaretz, pointed out the potential use of the directive by the IOF on October 7.
On Monday, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper revealed that the IOF had earlier recovered three captives: members Ron Shireman and Nick Baizer, as well as the settler Eliya Tolidano, from a tunnel in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
Maayan Shireman, an Israeli settler, who happens to be the mother of the killed Israeli soldier Ron Shireman, accused the IOF in a Facebook post of killing her son with poisonous gas pumped into the tunnel.
"My son was indeed killed, but not by Hamas, not in accidental gunfire, not in friendly fire; he was killed with premeditation and determination through pumping poisonous gases into the tunnel," she wrote.
