Over the past four months, nearly 19,000 children in Gaza were hospitalized for acute malnutrition due to Israel’s starvation campaign, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has reported.
This is almost double the number of acute malnutrition cases among children in Gaza in the first six months of 2024, the agency reports; at that time, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) head had said that northern Gaza was under a “full-blown famine” because of Israel’s brutal humanitarian aid blockade.
UNRWA reported on Sunday that one of their only remaining functional health centers has only six boxes of baby formula left to distribute, despite thousands of babies in need — and that was the first shipment of baby food the agency reviewed in three months, the group said.
“It has been 14 months. People here really are surviving on bread, lentils, food in tin cans. We are not seeing fruit and vegetables around. We are not seeing people with families and children get the nutrients that they need,” said UNRWA emergency officer Louise Wateridge last week.
Last month, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said that conditions across Gaza are ripe for famine, if it’s not already occurring. The IPC warned that the entirety of Gaza’s population is experiencing “emergency” food insecurity at least, and it is likely that the most acute food insecurity level “may have already been crossed” in north Gaza, where Israel has maintained a near-total aid blockade.
Similarly, in a CBS interview on Sunday, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said that Gaza is “very close” to famine, noting that WFP was only able to get two food trucks into Gaza in the entirety of November. She added that the famine conditions are “absolutely” man-made.
Experts have noted that Israeli forces have long used starvation and food insecurity as a means of violence and control in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli officials have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war by the International Criminal Court, UN bodies and experts, and a number of humanitarian aid groups, including Amnesty International.
Israeli forces have also systematically destroyed the health system in Gaza, rendering almost all health facilities in the region nonoperational or only partially operational. This means that, of the 19,000 children hospitalized for starvation, there are likely many, many more whose hunger has not been counted because they can’t access health care.
Israel’s aid blockade is causing health effects that will compound for decades to come. The UN Population Fund for Palestine recently reported that there are 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza who lack essentials like food, water and hygiene supplies. According to the group, 8,000 of these women are among the 345,000 people in Gaza facing “famine-like conditions.”
“There are increased reports of preterm and low-birth weight babies and malnutrition is making it harder for new mothers to breastfeed,” the group said in its most recent situation report.
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