One in 6 children in northern Gaza faces acute malnutrition, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which said in a report that “the situation is particularly extreme in the Northern Gaza Strip.”
It added that “aid to northern Gaza had been almost completely cut off for weeks”, noting that nutrition tests conducted in shelters and health centres in the region showed that “1 in 6 children under 2 years of age are acutely malnourished.”
This percentage is equivalent to 15.6 percent of children in the northern Gaza Strip, including about 3 percent who suffer from severe wasting, which threatens their lives.
UNICEF warned that the children concerned would face the highest risks of medical complications and death unless they received urgent treatment, stressing that the situation is getting graver today.
It stated that similar tests were conducted in Rafah, which concluded that 5 percent of children under the age of two suffer from acute malnutrition.
UNICEF stressed the importance of access to humanitarian aid, and the need to prevent a new attack on Rafah.
It highlighted that at least 90 percent of children under the age of 5 in Gaza are infected with at least one infectious disease. 70 percent of children had diarrhoea in the past two weeks, a 23-fold increase compared to 2022.
Israeli threats to carry out a ground invasion of the city of Rafah, adjacent to the border with Egypt, are escalating, despite mounting regional and international warnings of possible catastrophic repercussions.
The city of Rafah is witnessing significant overcrowding, as there are at least 1.4 million Palestinians, including more than a million displaced people who have taken refuge there as a result of IOF operations in the northern and central Gaza Strip, claiming it to be a “safe zone.”
Since October 7, 2023, the IOF has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in catastrophic humanitarian and health conditions, due to the continuous bombing and the prevention of supplies of food, water, medicine, and electricity.
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, as it exposes the lives and property of civilians to extreme danger, which requires urgent intervention from the international community to stop the aggression and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.
This international community must force the IOF to adhere to international laws and treaties on human rights and international humanitarian law. They must be obliged to protect the rights and lives of civilians, prohibit their targeting and preserve their safety, and punish the leaders responsible for committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.
