8 October 2025
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for joining us today.
Today’s press conference will preview the 72nd Session of the Regional Committee, but first want to talk about Gaza.
In September, I attended the High Level International Conference on the Two-State Solution at the UN General Assembly co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, which highlighted a positive way forward to ending this tragedy.
There has been significant progress toward the recognition of the State of Palestine, and advancing the two-state solution would greatly improve our ability to open humanitarian corridors and ensure the sustained flow of aid into Gaza.
I hope that this initiative—and the momentum among Member States—will continue to move forward.
And now, two years after the war in Gaza began, we see, at last, a glimmer of hope that its end may be in sight.
But when the fighting stops, a new struggle will begin—to rebuild Gaza’s shattered health system and rescue an entire population from the edge of famine and despair.
WHO has been planning for the day after the conflict, and we now have a clear vision of where and how to move forward.
We will need to move quickly from crisis response to recovery because rebuilding Gaza’s health system will not only save lives today; it will restore dignity, stability, and hope for the future.
First, we need to get hospitals working again. 14 of 36 hospitals are functioning, but only partially, with dire shortages of electricity, clean water, and medicines, as well as broken equipment and damaged infrastructure. Some facilities have been hit, and rehabilitated, more than once. WHO—which supplies all the fuel that powers hospitals and ambulances—has delivered 17 million litres of fuel, keeping surgeries, neonatal care, and vaccine cold chains running. But far more is needed. Essential supplies—from antibiotics to wound dressings—must reach every part of the Gaza Strip without delay.
At the same time, we must confront hunger and malnutrition. We are already too late when Palestinian health authorities report that 455 people—including 151 children, mostly under five—have died from malnutrition since January. Over half a million people are trapped in famine-like conditions, and more than a million others are severely food insecure. Seven in ten pregnant and breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished, one in five babies is born underweight or premature, and infectious diseases are surging.
WHO and partners are supporting the remaining stabilization centres that treat severely malnourished children and working to open new ones. But lasting recovery means rebuilding food systems, restoring clean water, and strengthening sanitation—the foundations of public health.
Of Gaza’s 176 primary health-care centres, only about a third remain partially functional. We must urgently rehabilitate all primary health care facilities to restore the backbone of public health—vaccination points, maternity clinics, pharmacies, and mental health services. Mobile teams and field hospitals must continue serving displaced populations until permanent facilities reopen.
Gaza’s doctors, nurses, and paramedics have endured exhaustion and loss. Over 1,700 health workers have been killed since October 2023. Those who continue to serve need protection, pay, and psychosocial support. Rebuilding Gaza’s health system must start with its people—training new professionals, restoring medical and other health-related schools, and bringing home those forced to flee.
Reconstructing the health sector will be costly—over US $7 billion split between humanitarian response and early recovery, and longer-term needs—but this investment is essential for the peace and stability that health can bring.
Donors must provide both emergency aid that addresses immediate humanitarian needs and flexible, predictable, multi-year support that rebuilds infrastructure, strengthens local capacity, and allows Palestinian institutions to lead a recovery that is inclusive, transparent, and sustainable.
And when we rebuild, we must build back better. Gaza’s health system must be more resilient, equitable and sustainable than before the war. Hospitals should be powered by renewable energy, clinics equipped with clean-water systems, and health information networks modernized to track outbreaks and guide planning.
Through every bombardment and blackout, WHO has stayed and delivered in Gaza. WHO has been the main provider of medicines and medical supplies, supporting over 22 million treatments and surgeries. We have coordinated medical evacuations for over 7,800 critically ill patients—out of over 15,000 in need—and we have co-lead immunization campaigns that protected 600,000 children from polio. We stood by Gaza’s health workers when they had nothing left but courage—and we will stand by them now.
WHO stands ready to support the day-after response and the recovery of Gaza’s health system by restoring core services, strengthening the health workforce, and rebuilding a resilient, people-centred system of care.
Next week, health ministers, policymakers, and regional health leaders will gather in Cairo for the 72nd session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean (RC72).
We will celebrate our many achievements, while also addressing this moment of extraordinary challenge for global health.
Conflict, climate change, economic fragility, and unprecedented humanitarian crises have converged to place health systems under extreme strain. Cuts in foreign aid threaten to deepen these pressures, with the full impact only beginning to surface.
The Regional Committee will offer countries a platform to deliberate on urgent technical issues and on the political choices that will shape the Region’s health future.
The agenda combines immediate life-saving priorities with long-term reforms, anchored in the Regional Strategic Operational Plan and three flagship initiatives on access to medicines, health workforce, and substance use.
We will also review and deliberate on four technical papers and associated resolutions, as well as launch a regional consultation process on climate change and health.
Ministers will consider a draft resolution to halve the number of “zero-dose” children—those who have never received a single vaccine—by 2030, while also committing to eliminate rubella and congenital rubella syndrome. Between 2019 and 2023, 12.6 million zero-dose children were recorded across the Region, mostly in conflict-affected and displaced communities. Each child represents a preventable tragedy—a life at risk from measles, polio, or rubella. This resolution is not just a technical milestone; it is a political statement that every child deserves protection.
A second resolution will call for palliative care to become a core part of national health systems. Today, only one per cent of the 2.4 million people in need of such care each year in our Region actually receive it. Millions—including cancer patients, children with congenital conditions, and refugees with chronic illness—continue to die in avoidable pain. Expanding palliative care is a question of dignity, compassion, and equity.
With 16 concurrent emergencies and more than 115 million people in need of assistance, the Eastern Mediterranean carries one-third of the global humanitarian caseload. From Gaza to Sudan, from Yemen to Afghanistan, health systems have been torn apart by war, climate shocks, and economic collapse. A new resolution will call for health-system recovery to become the foundation of resilience—ensuring that humanitarian response goes hand in hand with early investment in rebuilding services, restoring trust, and laying the groundwork for peace.
Laboratory safety has long been a blind spot in regional health security. Weak governance, fragmented oversight, and insufficient training leave facilities vulnerable to accidents or misuse. Ministers will discuss frameworks to close these gaps, protect health workers, and strengthen the role of laboratories in surveillance, diagnosis, and preparedness.
And finally, we will tackle the health impacts of the climate emergency in the Eastern Mediterranean. Dust storms, extreme heat, floods, and water scarcity are reshaping the health landscape and compounding vulnerabilities. Building on the Global Plan of Action on Climate Change and Health adopted at the World Health Assembly earlier this year, RC72 will launch a consultative process for a Regional Operational Framework on Climate and Health. This will be a regionally owned, context-specific roadmap to make health systems climate-resilient, equitable, and future-ready. It will strengthen surveillance and early warning systems, climate-proof health facilities, mobilize equity-centred financing, and establish a new Regional Climate-Health Observatory.
Ministers will also be invited to endorse a call to action on breast cancer—the leading cancer among women in the Region.
Beyond these headline issues, participants will discuss a range of technical and governance matters, including preparations for the next Executive Board. We will review the ongoing transformation process, examine health financing priorities, and highlight progress in polio eradication.
The Eastern Mediterranean Region has much to show the world—in its solidarity, courage, and innovation—and these strengths will come together at this year’s Regional Committee.
WHO remains committed to helping Member States achieve real results for health and equity across the Eastern Mediterranean.
I invite you all to follow the proceedings of RC72 live on the WHO/EMRO website and social media channels
And now, I give the floor to Mr. Aziz Abu Aisha, Head of the Emergency and Preparedness Department, Palestine Red Crescent Society.
