UNICEF said that months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed the food and health systems, resulting in “catastrophic consequences” for children and their families.
Nine out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip are experiencing severe food poverty, amidst the ongoing genocidal war in the enclave, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Five rounds of data collected between December 2023 and April 2024 have consistently found that 9 out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip are experiencing severe food poverty, surviving on two or fewer food groups per day,” UNICEF said in a statement on Thursday.
“This is evidence of the horrific impact the conflict and restrictions are having on families’ ability to meet children’s food needs – and the speed at which it places children at risk of life-threatening malnutrition.”
UNICEF said that months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed the food and health systems, resulting in “catastrophic consequences” for children and their families.
UNICEF says that months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed food and health systems, resulting in "catastrophic consequences" for children and their families in Gaza.
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— Wafa News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) June 6, 2024
Rising Malnutrition
Earlier this year, UNICEF warned about rising malnutrition threatening the lives of children.
Deputy Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations, Ted Chaiban said that the Gaza Strip was “poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza.”
In April, UNICEF Communication Specialist Tess Ingram said at least 70 children were injured each day in Gaza, adding that one child was “killed or injured every ten minutes.”
Rising Malnutrition Threatens Children’s Lives in Gaza – UNICEF
The agency also at the time said the number of children killed in the besieged enclave had surpassed 14,000.
“These children have become the faces of the ongoing war,” Ingram said. “From devastating injuries sustained in airstrikes to the trauma of being caught in violent clashes, their stories paint a harrowing picture of the human consequences of conflict.”
Limited Aid Entry
According to the latest Situation Report by UNRWA (The UN Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees), the current Israeli military operation in Rafah “is directly impacting the ability of aid agencies to bring critical humanitarian supplies into Gaza as well as the ability to rotate critical humanitarian staff.”
“Between 28 May – 1 June, only 232 trucks of humanitarian aid entered via Kerem Shalom, a significant reduction in aid entering prior to the Rafah military operation.”
Citing the World Health Organization, the report said “Challenges in increasing aid flow remain.”
“WHO highlighted the urgent need for crossings to be opened not just for medical supplies, but for all other humanitarian supplies,” the report stated.
Over 36,000 Killed
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 36,654 Palestinians have been killed, and 83,309 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
Massacre in Nuseirat – Israel Bombs Crowded UNRWA School, Kills Scores
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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