Gaza faces an “apocalyptic” situation after major aid organizations have lacked food stocks in recent days, the United Nations agencies working on Palestinian territory warned, two months after Israel began its total blockade on humanitarian aid.
The International Court of Justice hold a week of audiences On the obligation of Israel to “ensure and facilitate” humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Israel cut the entrance to the assistance to Gaza on March 2 and renewed its military campaign on March 18 in order to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages that the militant group took in its attack on October 7, 2023.
He also prohibited cooperation with UNRWA activities in Gaza and occupied West Bank, saying that it has been infiltrated by Hamas, which the United Nations agency denies firmly.
The director of communications of the Middle East and Africa in the Middle East and North) of the United Nations (UNICEF), Tess Ingram, told Euronews that this year, some 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition in children have been identified, 1,600 of which are serious. Data refer to children aged six months and 5 years.
Malnutrition increases among the children of Gaza
The number of children in Gaza treated for acute malnutrition almost doubled during a month, the figures provided by UNICEF show, with 2,027 children admitted for treatment in February, in the middle of the ceasefire and 3,696 children in March.
Acute malnutrition was almost nonexistent in Gaza before the War of Israel-Hamas, which has been raging for 18 months, The UN said.
People under the age of five are “the most vulnerable” to malnutrition, said Ingram, due to “specific nutritional needs”. “Without adequate food supplies, we will see the number of children suffering from malnutrition – and without treatment, seriously unwelcome children will become more sick and this will become fatal.”
Food stocks for prevention of Malnutrition of UNICEF (such as supplies of several micronutrients) are “fully exhausted”, according to Ingram, while food stocks for the treatment of malnutrition “have been exhausted at very limited levels”.
Acute severe malnutrition requires specific treatment, added Ingram, with long -term risks, including lifelong impacts on children's brain development.
Ingram added that a recent survey revealed that children under the age of two revealed that 90% ate two food groups or less, adding that it was breast milk and grains. “It is clearly not enough for the growth or development of a child – and it has been maintained for several months.
“During a visit north of Gaza in February, the doctors said to me: we no longer see fatty babies. They have a low birth weight, are premature – because mothers do not have the nutrients they need.”
Families face desperate circumstances as remaining food supplies decrease. Some are trying to allow themselves “the little they can in the markets”, but prices have increased astronomically.
A series of polio immunization was suspended in April, said Ingram, both because of the bombings and the blockade, aggravating things.
There have been two series of polio immunization campaigns since last year, but there are tens of thousands of children who are not vaccinated or who are only partially vaccinated against polio, she said.
ADVERTISEMENTThe mental health of children, as well as their caregivers, is at a breakdown, said Ingram. “I know a 5-year-old girl who was orphan and then was separated during a period of her grandmother, who had become her main dispenser. She stopped talking for months.”
“Many families without even a single daily meal”
The NGO Mercy Corps also reported disastrous conditions on the ground. In a press release shared with Euronews, one of the members of his team in Gaza said: “The situation is extremely miserable and deteriorates quickly, life worsens any way.”
“Food is largely unavailable; there are only certain preserves, legumes and local vegetables that are too expensive,” they said.
“People survive the food or canned pasta they had stored, or pay unbearable prices for the little. The collapse of food systems has left many families without even a single daily meal. ”
ADVERTISEMENTJonathan Fowler, Senior Communications Director of UNRWA, told Euronews that the situation in Gaza was “dystopian and apocalyptic”. “With each passing hour (under the blockade), more people enter a higher risk category” of malnutrition.
“Forecasts are acute (more widespread) (more widespread).
UNRWA is short of flour to provide the kitchens it works. He distributed his 250 remaining emergency food packages, containing dried food and retained for two weeks at the end of last week, Fowler told Euronews. The world gastronomic program Also short of food stocks this week.
“We move in the sense of famine … We look at this risk.”
ADVERTISEMENTA third of drugs are already out of stock, including those of diabetes, antimicrobial drugs and topical drugs, while another third party should run out in a few weeks, said Fowler.
“Humanitarian organizations have a ready to enter Gaza,” he said. “This includes nearly 3,000 UNRWA trucks for rescue. WFP claims that more than 116,000 metric tons of food aid – enough to feed a million people up to four months – is ready to be brought to Gaza as soon as level crossings reopped.”
Fowler said that incidents in looting aid and “settlement of assault convoys” which took place during the war decreased during the ceasefire, while the flows of humanitarian aid have become more abundant.
“If there is a shortage, then the help that comes to value for those who can use it for crime reasons,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Israeli government has repeatedly accused Hamas of controlling the flow of help and taking advantage of it, while allowing the Palestinians of the starving band.
At the end of April, the Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that the militant group should be stripped of any access to humanitarian aid intended for Gaza, which, according to Israel, allocated despite the blockade.
“Whenever it becomes necessary to allow additional aid, it must be ensured that it does not go through Hamas, which operates humanitarian aid to maintain control of the civilian population and take advantage at their expense – profits that base and maintain the terrorist infrastructures used to target TDI soldiers and Israeli civilians,” Katz said in a position on X.
Euronews contacted the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Israeli Defense Forces and the coordination of government activities in the territories, none of which provided a comment at the time of publication.
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