ADVERTISEMENTGaza is faced with a situation “Apocalyptic” After the main aid organizations have exhausted their food stocks in recent days, the United Nations agencies worked in the Palestinian territory warned two months after Israel has established a total blockade of humanitarian aid.
The International Court of Justice holds a week of hearings on the obligation of Israel “to insure and facilitate” Humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Israel prohibited the entry of assistance to Gaza on March 2 and resumed its military campaign on March 18 to put pressure on Hamas to release the last hostages that the militant group took during the October 7, 2023.
He also prohibited cooperation with UNRWA’s activities in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank, saying that he was infiltrated by Hamas, which the UN agency denies firmly.
Tess Ingram, communications manager of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the Middle East and North Africa, told Euronews since this year, some 10,000 cases of acute malnutrition in children have been identified, 1,600 of which are serious. The data concerns children aged six months to five years.
Malnutrition increases in children in Gaza
The number of Gaza children treated for acute malnutrition almost doubled in one month, according to figures provided by UNICEF, with 2,027 children admitted for treatment in February, at the time of the ceasefire, and 3,696 children in March.
Acute malnutrition was almost nonexistent in Gaza before the war between Israel and Hamas, which has been raging for 18 months, according to the United Nations.
Children under the age of five are “The most vulnerable” in malnutrition, Tess Ingram said, due to their “Specific nutritional needs”. “Without adequate food supply, we will see the number of children suffering from malnutrition increase – and without treatment, children suffering from severe malnutrition will become more and more sick and their lives will be threatened.”
UNICEF food stocks intended for the prevention of malnutrition (such as multiple micronutrient stocks) are “Totally exhausted“, According to Tess Ingram, while food stocks intended for the treatment of malnutrition “have been reduced to very limited levels”.
Acute severe malnutrition requires specific treatment, according to her, with long -term risks, including impact on children’s brain development.
Tess Ingram added that a recent survey revealed that 90 % of children under two ate two food groups or less, specifying that it was breast milk and cereals. “It is clearly insufficient for the growth and development of a child, and this for many months.”
“During a visit to the north of Gaza in February, doctors said to me: ‘We no longer see big babies. They have a low birth weight, are premature – because mothers do not receive the nutrients they need’”.
Families face desperate situations while food reserves are annoying. Some try to get “The little they can in the markets”but prices have increased astronomically.
According to Tess Ingram, a polio vaccination campaign was suspended in April, due to the bombing and the blockade, which has only aggravated the situation.
Two polio vaccination campaigns have taken place since last year, but tens of thousands of children are still not vaccinated or are only partially vaccinated against polio.
ADVERTISEMENTThe mental health of children, as well as that of people who take care of them, is out of breath, she said. “I know a 5-year-old girl who became an orphan and who was separated for some time from her grandmother, who had become her main care provision. She stopped talking for months.”
Many families do not even have one meal per day
The NGO Mercy Corps also reported disastrous conditions on the ground. In a statement sent to Euronews, one of the members of his team in Gaza said: “The situation is extremely miserable and deteriorates quickly, life deteriorates at all levels.”
“The food is largely unavailable; there are only a few canned rooms, legumes and local vegetables overpriced”.
“People survive the preserves or pasta they have stored, or pay unbearable prices for the little one.
ADVERTISEMENTJonathan Fowler, communications manager at UNRWA, told Euronews that the situation in Gaza was “Dystopian and apocalyptic”. “Every hour that passes (under the blockade), more and more people fall into a higher risk category” malnutrition.
“Forecasts report severe acute malnutrition (more widespread). And we do not have the means to stop it, because medical foods do not arrive at all.”he said, referring to the food products used to treat the most serious forms of malnutrition, such as those provided by UNICEF.
UNRWA has no more flour to supply the kitchens it manages. At the end of last week, she distributed the 250 remaining emergency packages, containing dry food and preserved for two weeks, Jonathan Fowler told Euronews. The World Food Program has also exhausted its food stocks this week.
“We are heading towards famine … We are looking at this risk.”
ADVERTISEMENTA third of drugs are already out of stock, including diabetes drugs, antimicrobial drugs and topical drugs, and another third party should be exhausted in the coming weeks, said Jonathan Fowler.
“Humanitarian organizations have a help ready to be transported to Gaza”he said. “This includes nearly 3,000 UNRWA trucks responsible for vital aid. The WFP says more than 116,000 tonnes of food aid – enough to feed a million people for four months – are ready to be transported to Gaza as soon as the crossing points reopen.”
Jonathan Fowler claims that incidents of looting aid and “Assault of convoys” which took place during the war decreased during the ceasefire, because the humanitarian aid flows became more abundant.
“If there is a shortage, the help that happens has value for those who can use it for criminal purposes”he explains.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Israeli government has repeatedly accused Hamas of controlling the flow of aid and taking advantage of it, while leaving the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip to starve.
At the end of April, the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz said that the militant group should be deprived of any access to humanitarian aid intended for the Gaza Strip, that Israel, according to him, attributes despite the blockade.
“Whenever it is necessary to authorize additional aid, it must be ensured that it does not go through Hamas, which operates humanitarian aid to maintain its control over the civilian population and make profits at its expense – profits that finance and support the terrorist infrastructure used to target TSAhal soldiers and Israeli civilians”said Israel Katz in a message published on X.
Euronews contacted the Israeli Defense Ministry, the Israeli army and the coordination of government activities in the territories, but none of them provided a comment at the time of publication.
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