On Wednesday, March 06, 2024, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced that the death toll from malnutrition and dehydration had risen to 23, warning that famine in the north had “reached a deadly level.”
The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said in a brief statement that the death toll from malnutrition and dehydration in the Gaza Strip has risen to 23, after 3 children died recently in Al-Shifa Medical Complex.
He added, “The famine in northern Gaza has reached deadly levels, especially for children, pregnant women, and chronic patients.”
He warned that “the famine is outspreading, and will claim the lives of thousands of citizens should the aggression not stop and humanitarian and medical aid not been brought in immediately.”
Al-Qudra accused the IOF of “deliberately committing horrific and successive massacres against thousands of hungry people in northern Gaza.”
The health spokesman called on the international community to pressure the Israeli occupation to ensure an immediate cessation of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip”, calling on the United Nations to take urgent measures to prevent the humanitarian and health catastrophe, especially in northern Gaza.
The Israeli aggression and the restrictions of the Israeli occupation had led the residents of Gaza, especially the Gaza and northern governorates to be on the verge of famine, given the scarcity of food, water, medicine and fuel supplies, and resulted in the displacement of about two million Palestinians from the Strip, which has been besieged by the occupation for 17 years.
The right to food is guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which requires the international community and humanitarian institutions to provide the necessary food aid to the people of Gaza.
Since October 7, the Israeli occupation army has waged a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which has left an enormous humanitarian catastrophe and a major health and environmental disaster.
The Israeli occupation destroyed the only supplies of fuel, electricity, water, and food for the people of the Gaza Strip at the start of the conflict by bombing bakeries, factories, stores, water stations, tanks, and other infrastructure.