The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of Israel’s war and its ongoing blocking of aid deliveries. At least 31 people - including 27 children - have died of hunger and dehydration in recent weeks. Since October 7, more than 13,450 children have been killed in the tiny territory, according to Gaza officials.
“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, in a statement Friday.
“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”, she added.
According to the UN agency, 31 percent - or 1 in 3 children under 2 years of age – in the northern Gaza Strip suffer from acute malnutrition, a staggering escalation from 15.6 percent in January. 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.
Nutrition screenings conducted by UNICEF and partner organizations 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. Severe wasting puts children at highest risk of medical complications and death unless they receive urgent therapeutic feeding and treatment, which is not available.
“Our efforts in providing life-saving aid are being hampered by unnecessary restrictions, and those are costing children their lives,” Russell said.
Screenings conducted for the first time in Khan Younis, in the middle area of the Gaza Strip, found 28 percent of children under 2 years have acute malnutrition, more than 10 percent of which have severe wasting. Even in Rafah, the southern enclave with the most access to aid, the results from screenings among children under 2 years doubled from 5 percent who were acutely malnourished in January to about 10 percent by the end of February.
UN agencies have been warning of the risk of a famine in the Gaza Strip since December. In January, the emergency thresholds for acute malnutrition in children were exceeded. Acute malnutrition among children has continued to rise rapidly and at scale and there is a high risk it will continue to increase across the Gaza Strip, costing more lives, in the absence of more humanitarian assistance and the restoration of essential services.
UNICEF has reached some children with treatment for acute malnutrition. More supplies are due to arrive this week, but this is still not enough to address the needs.
“We are doing everything we can to avert a worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but it is not enough,” Russell said.
“An immediate humanitarian ceasefire continues to provide the only chance to save children’s lives and end their suffering. We also need multiple land border crossings that allow aid to be reliably delivered at scale, including to northern Gaza, along with the security assurances and unimpeded passage needed to distribute that aid, without delays or access impediments.”
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the hunger crisis in Gaza is deepening, rendering almost the entire population reliant on food aid that remains insufficient to address soaring needs.
While children are starving to death due to lack of food, intense Israeli bombardment and ground operations continue to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of houses and other civilian infrastructure.
Israel’s - mostly indiscriminate and disproportionate - attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed more than 31,300 Palestinians and wounded more than 73,000 others. 70 percent of the fatalities are reportedly children and women. Among those killed are at least 167 UN staff, 348 health workers and 130 journalists.
Thousands of people - including thousands of children - have been reported missing and may be still trapped dead or alive under the rubble. Rescue teams are unable to reach affected residential areas due to security risks, lack of equipment, and severe road damage.
In recent days, dozens of Palestinians were reportedly shot and killed and more than 150 others injured by Israeli security forces while they were waiting for aid supplies at the entrance to Gaza City in several separate incidents.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, said today in a social media statement that the development was shocking, referring to an incident on Thursday.
“These incidents cannot be allowed to continue. People should not have to die while trying to keep their families alive,” Griffiths said.
The Under-Secretary-General stressed that the distribution of aid in Gaza should be done in a safe, dignified and predictable manner, noting that anything less would be unconscionable, and reiterated his call for an end to the war.
Some 1.7 million people – more than 75 percent of the total population of Gaza - are displaced due to the attacks by the Israeli military or Israeli evacuation orders. Among those uprooted from their homes by the war are 1 million children, including some 17,000 unaccompanied or separated boys and girls.
The entire population of the Gaza Strip - more than 2.2 million people - is affected by acute hunger and is at immediate risk of famine. The bombardment, ground operations and siege of the entire population, combined with the restriction of humanitarian access, have led to catastrophic acute food insecurity, increasing the risk of famine every day. At least 500,000 people are already affected by catastrophic conditions.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Jamie McGoldrick, has emphasized that road transport is the only solution for scaling up the flow of aid. The WFP has warned that “famine is imminent” if the amount of aid to northern Gaza is not “exponentially” increased.
Meanwhile, Israel's allies - including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany - continue to provide political and military support for the war on civilians that is characterized by grave war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israeli forces.
These violations include collective punishment of the civilian population, use of starvation as a method of warfare, denial of humanitarian aid, indiscriminate killings of civilians, disproportionate attacks, forced displacement, torture, enforced disappearance and further atrocity crimes.
Further information
Full text: Acute malnutrition has doubled in one month in the north of Gaza Strip: UNICEF, UNICEF, press release, published March 15, 2024
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/acute-malnutrition-has-doubled-one-month-north-gaza-strip-unicef