An eight-year-old child waits in line to receive food in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. A tenth child has died of hunger in Gaza. Peace and Security
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported Friday that a tenth child in Gaza has died from malnutrition and dehydration.
“The tenth child is officially registered at the hospital as having died of starvation,” said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier. “This is a very sad milestone, but unofficial figures, unfortunately, may be higher.”
Previously, the media reported that four children died at Kamal-Adwan Hospital in the north of Gaza; six others on Wednesday at the same clinic and at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Catastrophic situation
One in four Gazans currently faces “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Last Thursday, more than a hundred Palestinians were killed and hundreds were wounded while waiting for humanitarian aid to be distributed at a roundabout southwest of Gaza City.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned this incident and called for an independent investigation. His statement was supported by other senior UN officials, including UN Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths.
After the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli settlements on October 7, virtually all vital utilities in Gaza ceased to function. , including water supply and electricity.
“Those fields and greenhouses that existed before the escalation require a water supply, which in turn depends on the supply of electricity to pumping stations,” said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier.
“Finding food in the Gaza Strip itself, be it agricultural or fishing products, is now physically impossible,” added OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke. – Before the conflict, people had food, they could produce their own food. The basis of people’s daily sustenance has now been undermined.”
According to a scale used by aid organizations, Gaza’s entire population – 2.2 million people – faces “crisis” levels of food insecurity. About 1.17 million of this number experience “extreme” levels of food insecurity, while another 500,000 remain “catastrophic.”
Change for the worse
“The situation is dire, and change for the worse is coming very quickly,” said Jens Laerke.
According to the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the amount of humanitarian aid arriving in Gaza in February was only half of what it was in January. “And this must be taken into account, and in January they were absolutely insufficient,” said an OCHA representative.
Last week, the UN Security Council heard reports from representatives of the leading UN humanitarian agencies and Doctors Without Borders, which reported that attacks by Israeli forces on hospitals and other civilian buildings, as well as on humanitarian personnel and convoys, “are either deliberate or indicate reckless incompetence.”
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