A statement by UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khoder, made it clear.
C. Roubini Chinnapa9 CTC, Vatican News
UNICEF has revealed that the number of child deaths it feared has arrived as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip. At least ten children have died of dehydration and malnutrition in recent days at Kamal Advan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, according to reports on March 3. More children are fighting for their lives somewhere in one of Gaza’s few remaining hospitals, and an even greater number of children in the north may be without care. These tragic and gruesome deaths are man-made and predictable.
Children and mothers are affected by the widespread lack of nutritious food, safe water and medical services, barriers to access and the dangers faced by United Nations humanitarian operations and their direct consequences. In particular, mothers in the northern Gaza Strip do not even have the strength to breastfeed their children. UNICEF explained that people there are hungry, tired and traumatized.
The disparity in conditions between North and South is clear evidence that aid restrictions in the North are costing lives. A malnutrition survey conducted in January by UNICEF and the World Food Program (WFP), an arm of the United Nations, in the northern part of the country found that nearly 16%, or one in six children under two years of age, are severely malnourished. In the south, in Rafah, where aid is more available, similar tests were conducted and found that 5% of children under two were severely malnourished.
Humanitarian aid agencies like UNICEF should be enabled to overcome the humanitarian crisis, prevent hunger and save the lives of children. To this end, UNICEF has stated that it needs multiple reliable entry points that allow it to deliver aid through all possible crossings, including Gaza’s northern route. And there is a need for assurances of security and an unimpeded path for the delivery of aid across Gaza on a large scale, without restrictions, delays or access barriers.
Since October, UNICEF has warned that the death toll in Gaza could rise if a humanitarian crisis erupts and is allowed to worsen. Adele Khodar also reiterated that the situation has worsened, and as a result, UNICEF warned last week that an explosion of child deaths is imminent if the ongoing nutrition crisis is not addressed. Children are dying now. Unicef has warned that the child death toll will rise rapidly unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian aid are addressed immediately.
The helplessness and despair of parents and doctors who realize that life-saving help just a few kilometers away is being taken away from their hands is unbearable. But worse than that are the agonized cries of those children who are slowly dying before the eyes of the world. The lives of thousands of newborns and children depend on urgent action.
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2024-03-04 14:33:02
