The World Health Organization's regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, warned in a recent interview of an unfolding regional health crisis across the Middle East and called for a pause in hostilities to safeguard healthcare services. The Eastern Mediterranean region comprises 22 countries and territories, including Iran, the Gulf states, Gaza, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

"The situation has been quite difficult for some time, but what we're seeing today is just an actual regional health crisis unfolding in real time in multiple parts of this region," Balkhy said. "It's not just about lives being lost. It's about a collapse of access [to healthcare] in many, many dimensions way above and beyond what we would have imagined."

She also called for renewed protection of medical facilities under international humanitarian law. "People in countries at war would go and hide in the hospitals because they were sure it would not be bombed. That's not the case any more. So I think we need to focus a lot on how do we bring back the compliance with the international humanitarian law on securing healthcare," she said.

Within less than one month, 3.2 million people have been displaced from their homes in Iran, and more than 1 million have been displaced in Lebanon. People with chronic illnesses had their treatment disrupted by hospital closures. Since the start of the US-Iran war, the WHO has verified dozens of attacks on healthcare in Lebanon, Iran, and Israel.

WHO officials were updating guidance and preparing for any impact on nuclear sites. Balkhy said attacks on water desalination plants would be a disaster that could leave vast numbers of people in Gulf countries without water. Rainwater could carry contamination from strikes on oil or nuclear sites into underground water sources. According to Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, a projectile hit the grounds of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday night. The WHO is working with other UN agencies to find ways to potentially mitigate such events if they occur.

An attack on El-Daein teaching hospital in East Darfur, Sudan, led to the deaths of at least 70 people, including 13 children, two nurses, and a doctor, leaving the hospital nonfunctional. Balkhy said the crises in Gaza, Sudan, and Yemen were being neglected as global attention turned to the US-Iran conflict. She also expressed concern about effects on maternal mortality, mental health, and children left orphaned and without education.