GENEVA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) 31 percent – or 1 in 3 children under 2 years of age – in the Northern Gaza Strip suffer from acute malnutrition, according to nutrition screenings conducted by UNICEF.
Malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of the war and ongoing restrictions on aid delivery, the UN organization said.
At least 23 children in the Northern Gaza Strip have reportedly died from malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks, adding to the mounting toll of children killed in the Strip in this current conflict – about 13,450 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Nutrition screenings conducted by UNICEF and partners in the north in February found that 4.5 percent of the children in shelters and health centers suffer from severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, which puts children at the highest risk of medical complications and death unless they receive urgent therapeutic feeding and treatment, which is not available. The prevalence of acute malnutrition among children under 5 years of age in the north has increased from 13 percent to as high as 25 percent.
“The speed at which this catastrophic child malnutrition crisis in Gaza has unfolded is shocking, especially when desperately needed assistance has been at the ready just a few miles away,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.
“We have repeatedly attempted to deliver additional aid and we have repeatedly called for the access challenges we have faced for months to be addressed. Instead, the situation for children is getting worse by each passing day. Our efforts in providing life-saving aid are being hampered by unnecessary restrictions, and those are costing children their lives.”
