2024-02-20T04:47:04+00:00
A-
A
A+
/ The United Nations warned that the alarming food shortage, widespread malnutrition, and rapid spread of diseases are factors that could lead to an “explosion” in the number of child deaths in the Gaza Strip.
Twenty weeks into Israel’s war against Hamas, UN agencies say food and clean water are “very scarce” in the besieged Palestinian enclave and almost all young children are suffering from infectious diseases.
“Gaza is on the verge of an explosion in preventable child deaths, compounding the already intolerable level of child mortality,” said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director.
At least 90 percent of children under the age of five in Gaza are affected by one or more infectious diseases, according to a report by UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme.
70 percent had had diarrhea in the past two weeks, a 23-fold increase compared to 2022.
“Hunger and disease are a deadly combination,” said Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergencies director.
“Hungry, weak and traumatized children are more vulnerable to disease,” Ryan added. “And sick children, especially those with diarrhea, cannot absorb nutrients well.”
According to a UN assessment, more than 15 percent of children under two, or one in six, are suffering from “acute malnutrition” in northern Gaza, and are almost completely cut off from humanitarian aid.
“This data was collected in January, and the situation is likely to be more serious now,” the UN agencies said.
In the southern Gaza Strip, 5 percent of children under the age of two suffer from acute malnutrition, according to the assessment.
According to UN agencies, “this deterioration in the nutritional status” of a people within three months is “unprecedented worldwide.”
The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack on southern Israel launched by Hamas on October 7, during which more than 1,160 people were killed, most of them civilians, and about 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, according to a tally prepared by Agence France-Presse based on official Israeli data.
The death toll from Israeli military operations in Gaza rose on Monday to 29,029 dead and 69,028 wounded since October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip.