U.N. aid agencies have warned that more than a dozen children have died of starvation in Gaza and many more are at risk as malnutrition surges, infectious diseases spread and urgently needed life-saving humanitarian aid is blocked from entering the Palestinian enclave.
“As of March 3, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that 15 children had died due to malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza’s only pediatric hospital, and that six additional infants with acute respiratory illnesses had been treated expressed fear for their lives, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s regional representative in Palestine, said, citing the Hamas-controlled agency.
Pieperkorn told reporters in Geneva from his post in Jerusalem on Tuesday that without a sustained ceasefire, “the 2.2 million people in Gaza will be plunged into a catastrophe of epic proportions and face inhumane conditions.”
“There is a risk of famine. There is a risk of illness. People are extremely desperate and material deprivation leads to frequent breakdowns in law and order,” Pieperkorn said. “IDPs are facing severe shortages of food, water, shelter and medicine,” he added.
This was confirmed by a team of World Health Organization officials who joined forces with partners to visit Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza over the weekend, a day after Hamas militants invaded Israel on October 7 and launched a First visit since the heavy offensive. Gaza Strip.
Dr Ahmed Dahir, director of the WHO’s Gaza office, said the journey north was indescribable.
“Every time you think it’s not going to get worse, it does. No photo or video can truly capture the devastation happening in Gaza,” he said.
“On the way to the hospital, a crowd of desperate people looking for food approached our truck and surrounded it,” Dashiell said. “We had to use a loudspeaker to tell them we were only carrying medical supplies before we could continue. Watch It is heartbreaking to see the hospitable people of Gaza reduced to such a desperate situation.”
Dashiell said the situation at the hospital was equally dire. He said health workers and patients were barely surviving on one basic meal a day. He said both hospitals faced shortages of fuel, electricity and staff to treat the many trauma cases admitted.
“Thanks to the supply that was made available over the weekend,” some services that were no longer running “were able to restart,” he said.
Pieperkorn said medical teams arrived at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical center, to provide fuel, life-saving medicines and treatment for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. He said it had been more than a month since WHO officials arrived at the facility.
While important, Pieperkorn called these deliveries “a small fraction of the emergency life-saving needs.”
“We call for continued humanitarian access,” he said. “Deconfliction mechanisms need to continue to work so that aid reaches those in need.”
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, agreed on the importance of scaling up humanitarian aid delivery in line with huge needs.
“Now, as doctors are telling our colleagues, children are starving. Now, when they are dying, this should be an unprecedented alarm,” Larke said.
“If not now, when is the time to stop, break the glass, and provide Gaza with the assistance it needs? So, that’s what we need to see happen,” he said.
About 130 rescue trucks have passed through the Rafah crossing on the southern border with Egypt over the past three days each day, Larke said. Before the war in Gaza began, about 500 humanitarian aid trucks entered the enclave every day, he said.
United Nations aid agencies have called on Israel to open the Erez crossing to allow goods into northern Gaza, where humanitarian aid has been largely cut off since November.
“The child death toll we feared has already occurred and unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately addressed, children will The death toll could increase rapidly.”
She attributed recent child deaths at Kamal Adwan Hospital to “dehydration and malnutrition.”
“There may be many more children fighting for their lives in one of the few remaining hospitals in Gaza, while many more children in the north may not have access to care at all,” she said. “These are tragic and horrific deaths. It’s man-made, it’s foreseeable, and it’s completely preventable.”
Malnutrition screening conducted by UNICEF and the World Food Program in the northern region in January found that nearly 16%, or one in six, of children under 2 years old were severely malnourished.
Similar screening in Rafah in the south, where aid is more accessible, found that 5% of children under 2 years old were severely malnourished.
Severely malnourished children have weakened immune systems and are at increased risk of severe illness and death, primarily from acute infectious diseases.
“We have been concerned since November that due to a lack of clean water and an extreme lack of nutrition… we are seeing the deaths we have long feared,” said UNICEF spokesman James Elder. “
“Because we don’t have access to aid, malnutrition rates in the northern region are three times higher than in the Rafah region,” he said. “So there is some evidence that when aid pours in, it does save lives.
Follow us on Google news ,Twitter , and Join Whatsapp Group of thelocalreport.in
