THOUSAND OSI Translation. Region: Spanish/Latin America/UN –
Source: United Nations – in Spanish 4
Headline: We must end the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East, calls for Guterres after the attacks on Iran
Following Israeli attacks inside Iran near a nuclear power plant early Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made a new appeal to all parties to “stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East.”
“The Secretary-General condemns any act of retaliation and calls on the international community to work together to prevent further developments that could have devastating consequences for the entire region and beyond,” he said in a statement issued by your office.
Echoing these concerns, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, urged “extreme restraint” from all parties, after more than six and a half months of war in Gaza that has fueled fears of a broader regional conflict.
“The IAEA can confirm that there is no damage to Iranian nuclear facilities” and Director General Grossi “continues to call for extreme restraint from everyone and reiterates that nuclear facilities should never be a target in military conflicts,” the agency said. the UN in a tweet, after the media failed to confirm that possible drone attacks had targeted the Iranian province of Isfahan, which is home to nuclear facilities and military garrisons.
Also in Geneva, the Human Rights Office (OHCHR) urged all parties to “take measures to defuse the situation” quickly.
“We ask third states, particularly those with influence, to do everything in their power to ensure that an already extremely precarious situation does not deteriorate further,” said its spokesman, Jeremy Laurence.
Hunger and fear in Gaza
In the Gaza Strip, humanitarian aid teams provided new insights into the dangers Palestinian civilians, especially pregnant women and nursing mothers, face as a result of the “wanton destruction” of vital medical equipment and “ dehydration, malnutrition and fear” widespread among Palestinians.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Dominic Allen, representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for Palestine, said there were indications that the number of complicated births was almost double what it was before the war broke out.
“There is an absolute increase in numbers,” she said, adding that before the war, about 15% of births required some form of emergency obstetric care. Currently, some doctors have reported “a doubling of what they had to care for before, and this is due to malnutrition, dehydration and fear, which affect the pregnant woman’s ability to give birth safely and carry your baby to term safely,” said the official from this agency in charge of ensuring sexual and reproductive health.
senseless destruction
Allen described his latest mission to the Strip to assess the impact of Israeli strikes on healthcare in besieged hospitals in the northern, central and southern provinces.
Allen insisted, via video link from Jerusalem, that the last remaining hospitals in the Strip, including Nasser Hospital, the second largest, “are clinging to life while being a lifeline for pregnant women in Gaza.” ”.
And he added: “What I have seen breaks my heart… It is indescribable. What we see there is medical equipment broken on purpose; ultrasound machines, which as you know is a very important tool to help ensure safe births, with cables that have been cut, and other complex medical equipment with shattered screens. Thus, intentional and gratuitous destruction in motherhood.”
Before heavy Israeli bombing began in response to the Hamas-led terrorist attacks across southern Israel on October 7, the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis had a maternity ward that UNFPA teams have supported and supplied for years.
To become fully functional again, the hospital will need, at a minimum, to retrofit water and sanitation services and repair damaged electrical generators. “But I stood next to the warehouse (where) we delivered supplies many months ago and it was literally on fire; “There is a lot of work to be done to try to restore that lifeline,” Allen said.
palpable fear
The UNFPA mission, which began on Monday, April 8 and ended this Wednesday, was carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
The objective was to visit a dozen hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al Aqsa Hospital, in central Gaza, which was “overflowed with traumatized patients” and did not provide maternity care. At Emirati Hospital, in the south of the enclave, Allen said he met with the center’s medical director, who told him that “he no longer sees normal-sized babies.”
As for Rafah and continuing fears of an Israeli incursion, the UNFPA official underlined the “great sense of fear” hanging over the more than 1.2 million people taking refuge there.
“There is a palpable fear on the part of the Gazans I spoke to: the midwives, the doctors, the pregnant women, my colleagues, who are in Gaza… Right now it is a refuge for 1.2 million Gazans ; It is not a safe haven, but at least it is a refuge.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.
