The crisis in Gaza continues to remain acute, with UN humanitarians reporting critical shortages of water, food and efforts to deliver vital aid to the war-torn region. Meanwhile, escalating violence in the West Bank has further deepened concerns over civilian safety and access to assistance.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued an alert on Tuesday over intensifying hostilities in the northeast in recent days.

When the plague, cholera and yellow fever rippled deadly waves across a newly industrialised and interconnected world in the mid-19th century, taking a global approach to health became an imperative. Doctors, scientists, presidents and prime ministers urgently convened the International Sanitary Conference in Paris in 1851, a precursor to what is now the largest of its kind: the World Health Organization, known as WHO.