The Gaza Strip suffers from a severe shortage of basic foodstuffs and infant formula (Anatolia)
Today, Tuesday, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned of an imminent explosion in the number of child deaths linked to malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, explaining that death rates in the northern Gaza Strip are three times higher than those recorded in the south.
UNICEF spokesman James Elder said, in a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, that the number of child deaths as a result of malnutrition will continue to rise if the worsening nutrition crisis in the Gaza Strip is not resolved.
He explained that malnutrition rates among children under the age of five in the north are three times higher than those in Rafah in the south.
In addition to hunger, Elder said there is an increasing risk of infectious diseases, as 9 out of every 10 children under the age of five (about 220,000 children) have become ill over the past weeks.
For his part, Richard Peppercorn, the representative of the World Health Organization in Gaza and the West Bank, said that one in every 6 children under the age of two in the northern Gaza Strip suffers from acute malnutrition.
He added that this data was in January, and the situation is likely to be worse today.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that at least 16 children died in the northern Gaza Strip during the past few days due to malnutrition and dehydration, the last of whom was 10-year-old Yazan al-Kafarna.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that a quarter of the Gaza Strip's population, i.e. 576,000 people, is one step away from famine, about 5 months after the start of the Israeli aggression.
The continuation of the Israeli aggression against Gaza for 5 months and the occupation’s prevention of aid from entering the Strip, as well as the freezing of funding by a number of countries, led by the United States, of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), led to a severe shortage of basic foodstuffs and infant formula.
On February 29, Israeli forces opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians as they gathered south of Gaza City waiting to receive humanitarian aid, leaving 118 martyrs and 760 wounded, according to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.
Since October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving tens of thousands of civilian casualties, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive infrastructure destruction.
Source: Agencies