‘Most courageous leaders choose peace,’ WHO chief says on Gaza

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday urged world leaders to prioritize peace, saying political solutions were essential in Gaza. "Peace is the best medicine, the most courageous leaders choose peace. The world must commit to it," Tedros told Anadolu on the sidelines of the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye. Asked about his message to the international community ahead of the end of his term in mid-August next year, the WHO chief emphasized the importance of political solutions to conflicts.

"There has been some improvement" in Gaza, Tedros said, but stressed that progress remained insufficient. "Our leaders must focus on political solutions for Gaza," he added. WHO chief calls for climate-resilient health systems Separately, speaking at a news briefing alongside Turkish Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu, Tedros called for urgent measures to protect people and health systems from climate change. "The health impacts of climate change are not a theoretical risk for the future, they are here and now," he said.

Tedros warned that climate change was already driving illness, disrupting essential services, and putting health workers at risk. He urged governments to ensure that hospitals and clinics could continue operating during extreme weather events, including heat waves, floods, and storms. He said health facilities needed reliable electricity and water supplies, early warning systems, resilient supply chains, and trained personnel. Countries know many of the measures needed to strengthen health systems, but often lack the financing, capacity, and coordination to implement them on a large scale, he added.

"The focus now should be implementation, implementation, and implementation," Tedros said. The WHO chief welcomed the Antalya Initiative for Health Resilience as a practical platform for countries to exchange experiences and adapt successful approaches to local needs. Memisoglu, for his part, said COP31 must translate scientific knowledge into practical action. He said Türkiye was preparing a 2026-2030 Climate Change and Health Action Plan, building on its national program published in 2015.

“With the health action plan we have prepared for extreme heat, we are beginning to translate meteorological warnings into local preventive health measures,” he added. “Our aim is to identify in time where dangers are growing and whom they could affect most, and to take action,” Memisoglu said. He noted that the ministry was promoting green hospitals that use energy and water efficiently, reduce waste, and strengthen continuity of care.

“We want a successful solution developed in one country to save lives in another,” he added.