Israel is suffering from a health crisis unleashed since the devastating terrorist attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israel on October 7, 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.

“This Monday will mark one year of collective trauma that has spared no one in the country,” said the WHO’s Israel representative, Michel Thieren.
“It has spread at pandemic speed and has doubled and in some parts tripled the demand for mental health care.”

Mr Thieren said this resulted from the attacks that have killed over 1,200 people and displaced at least 75,000 who are unable to return to their homes.

“This is due to the attacks that killed around 1,200 people, the abduction of around 200 hostages to the Gaza Strip and the firing of around 19,000 rockets into Israel since then,” he stated.

According to him, the entire healthcare system in the country’s north only works in basements, shelters or car parks.

“A patient without daylight is a patient without natural strength to heal,” said Mr Thieren.

He said no one will heal without peace, and the release of the 101 hostages still in the hands of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

(dpa/NAN)