GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), A Palestinian health official in the Gaza Strip has said that around 1,500 children are waiting for the border crossing to open so they can travel abroad for medical treatment.
Addressing journalists outside Al-Shifa Hospital on Sunday, Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the health ministry’s information unit, said that the ministry had to suspend a large number of its operations due to a severe shortage of medicines and vital medical supplies.
Wahidi also said that nearly 110,000 children suffer from malnutrition, including about 9,500 children with acute malnutrition, calling this a “dangerous indicator of the worsening humanitarian crisis.”
He said that 1,200 patients, including 155 children, had died because they were not evacuated for treatment outside the Strip.
According to Wahidi, 42 percent of pregnant women in Gaza suffer from anemia, while child mortality rates have risen significantly due to the lack of basic health services and the ban on the travel of patients, especially children, abroad to receive necessary treatment.
