The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that many more children in Gaza will die of dehydration and malnutrition unless there is direct intervention to provide assistance.
“There are likely more children fighting for their lives somewhere in one of Gaza’s few remaining hospitals, and likely even more children in the north unable to obtain care at all,” Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
“Now, the child deaths we feared are here and are likely to rapidly increase unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved,” Khodr warned.
“These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable, and entirely preventable,” she added.
According to the UN agency, nearly 16%—or one in six children under two years of age—are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.
She further said the widespread lack of nutritious food, clean water, and medical services in Gaza is “a direct consequence of the impediments to access and multiple dangers facing UN humanitarian operations.”
Earlier, the Palestinian Health Ministry affirmed that at least 15 children have died of malnutrition in the past few days at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City.
On Feb. 19, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that the sharp rise in malnutrition among children, pregnant women and lactating mothers in the Gaza Strip poses a “serious threat” to their health, especially with the ongoing war.
Due to the Israeli war and siege, the population of Gaza, particularly in the northern governorates and Gaza, is in danger of going famine due to a severe lack of food, water, medicine, and fuel supplies. Additionally, approximately two million Palestinians have been forced to flee the Strip, which has been under siege for 17 years.
The right to food is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of the right to an adequate standard of living, and is also protected by regional treaties and national constitutions. Thus, international community and humanitarian institutions should work together 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.
The Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, as it exposes the civilians’ lives to extreme danger and causes them great suffering, which requires urgent and decisive international intervention to stop the aggression and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.
