Israel has suffered a year of collective trauma, says WHO envoy

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 Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

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

"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. Some 75,000 people have been displaced and have not yet been able to return to their homes," he said.

Also, the entire health-care system in the north of the country only works in basements, shelters or car parks. "A patient without daylight is a patient without natural strength to heal," said Thieren.

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