UNICEF issued a statement on the Children of the Gaza Strip stating that “More than 80 per cent of young children are experiencing severe food poverty.”
The UNICEF estimates that in the coming weeks, “at least 10,000 children under five years will suffer the most life-threatening form of malnutrition.”
It stressed that “all children under five in the Gaza Strip—335,000—are at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death as the risk of famine conditions continues to increase.”
“This unacceptable risk comes at a time when the Gaza Strip’s food and health systems are facing complete collapse,” the statement continued.
The UNICEF pointed out that “more than two-thirds of hospitals are no longer functioning because of the lack of fuel, water, and vital medical supplies or because they sustained catastrophic damage in attacks,” stressing the need to implement an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
In October 2023, UNICEF stressed that more than 400 children are being either killed or injured in the Gaza Strip which has been witnessing a genocidal war by the Israeli occupation for 78 days until now.
Residents in Gaza City are facing starvation and selling their possessions for food, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
“Hunger is present, and famine is looming in Gaza,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote Saturday on X.
“People are facing starvation and selling their possessions in exchange for food. Parents are going hungry so their children can eat.”
He emphasised that “This protracted conflict is blocking much-needed access to food and other life-saving humanitarian aid. Displaced people are crowding in shelters amid harsh winter conditions, which will inevitably increase the spread of disease,” said Ghebreyesus.
“Children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and older people are at greatest risk,” he added.
The head of WHO called for “an urgent improvement in food security via accelerated flows of aid into Gaza,” adding that “Health, clean water, sanitation and hygiene services must be restored.”
UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma on BBC News Channel said that the current situation in the Gaza Strip is horrific and a quarter of its population is “starving.”
The UN official considered this situation a direct result of the blockade and the lack of basic supplies, including food. She added that when she was there recently, she saw the people of Gaza terrified and exhausted, living in fear, and the bombing continuing without stopping.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation army has been waging extermination war on the Gaza Strip, leaving tens of thousands dead and injured, in addition to massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
Since the start of the war, the occupation has cut off all supplies of electricity, water, fuel and food to the residents of the Gaza Strip, and bombed bakeries, factories, stores, water stations and tanks.
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, as it exposes the lives and property of civilians to extreme danger and great suffering, which requires urgent intervention by the international community to stop the aggression and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.
