‘ONE IN SIX children under two years of age are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza,’ Richard Peeperkorn, World Health Organisation (WHO) representative said yesterday.
‘This was in January. So the situation is likely to be greater today,’ Peeperkorn added, referring to when the data was recorded.
UNICEF spokesman James Elder said malnutrition rates for children under five in northern Gaza are three times higher than in Rafah in the south
Adding to hunger, there is a growing risk from infectious diseases, with nine-in-10 children under the age of five – around 220,000 – falling sick over the last weeks.
‘That becomes the spiral that we are so fearful of: infectious diseases, lack of food, a desperate lack of clean water and ongoing bombardment and, incredulously, still discussion of an offensive into Rafah, which is a city of children,’ Elder said.
‘Rafah is a city of children. It has about three quarters of a million children living there.’
Salim Oweis, the regional spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that Israel’s war on Gaza is exacting the heaviest toll on children living there.
‘We need urgent international action, and what is happening in Gaza is a test of human conscience. The lack of aid reaching the north worsens the health situation of children.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) committed 10 massacres in different areas of the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing at least 97 civilians and injuring over 123 others.
The health ministry added that the death toll from the ongoing Israeli bombardments since October 7th, climbed to 30,631, with the number of wounded surging to 72,043.
Apart from the large number of casualties and the huge displacement of people, basic food, fuel, water and medical supplies have run out for the 2.3 million residents in Gaza due to the tight Israeli blockade and the massive destruction of infrastructure and facilities.
