Iranian Health Minister Urges Immediate Global Action on Catastrophic Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
Tehran, The Gulf Observer: Iran’s Minister of Health, Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, has issued an urgent appeal to international organizations, expressing profound regret over the catastrophic humanitarian situation unfolding in Gaza, and calling for immediate, coordinated intervention to halt the ongoing devastation in the besieged Palestinian territory.
In a letter addressed to global health and humanitarian bodies, Zafarghandi warned that the scale and deliberate nature of destruction inflicted upon Gaza’s civilian population — particularly children and women — has “surpassed the threshold of a humanitarian crisis,” according to a press release issued by Iran’s Ministry of Health on Sunday.
Highlighting the collapse of Gaza’s public health system, the minister described the situation as a calculated attempt to annihilate the very essence of human life. He called on the international community to take swift and decisive action against what he termed as “collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.”
Zafarghandi painted a grim picture of the dire conditions facing Gaza’s civilians, noting that many infants are dying in their mothers’ arms due to severe malnutrition and dehydration. He cited alarming data indicating that over 32% of children under the age of two are suffering from acute malnutrition.
He further alleged that famine is being weaponized in the conflict, with desperate families forced to consume grass, animal feed, and non-edible substances to survive, while humanitarian aid continues to be blocked or destroyed.
Condemning the actions of the Israeli regime in the strongest terms, the Iranian Health Minister urged the international community to take a series of urgent measures, including the immediate establishment of field hospitals, deployment of nutrition crisis response teams, and authorization of United Nations-operated humanitarian flights to deliver critical infant nutrition supplies.
He also appealed to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to adopt emergency resolutions aimed at lifting the blockade on Gaza and to mobilize financial and logistical support for life-saving interventions.
“Every hour of delay takes innocent lives, and every day of hesitation buries another child in the ground,” the minister emphasized, urging swift and united global action to avert further tragedy.
