UN report: 92% of infants in Gaza deprived of basic food
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories said that 92% of infants in Gaza are deprived of basic food, exposing them to serious health risks that will accompany them throughout their lives.
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The office explained in a report issued on Wednesday that the number of children receiving treatment for malnutrition in the Gaza Strip has increased by eighty percent compared to last March, as a result of the continuing Israeli siege and the closure of crossings.
It pointed out that most infants between the ages of six months and two years do not receive the minimum of their nutritional needs with their mothers and warned that the interruption of supplies threatens the future of these children and increases their permanent health suffering.
The report showed that 65% percent of Gaza’s population cannot obtain clean drinking water, while the number of children receiving treatment for malnutrition has risen to three thousand and six hundred children, after it did not exceed two thousand children last month.
This severe deterioration in the humanitarian situation comes amid the continued complete closure of the sector since March 2nd, which has halted the entry of food and humanitarian aid, as mothers and children suffer daily from severe shortages of basic supplies.
The report also confirmed that displaced families in the temporary displacement camps in Khan Yunis face severe shortages of food and water, leading to the spread of diseases among children.
The OCHA spokesperson in Gaza, Olga Cherevko, said that the current efforts to address malnutrition are insufficient unless the root causes of the crisis are addressed, calling for the reopening of crossings and improving the living conditions of the population.
Cherevko added that the continued closure for the seventh consecutive week is exacerbating the malnutrition crisis and pushing towards the collapse of life-saving health services, stressing that the situation has become urgent and requires urgent action to avoid a greater humanitarian catastrophe.
It is noteworthy that Gaza has been under an Israeli siege for the eighteenth year, with about one and a half million of its population of about two million and four hundred thousand living homeless as a result of the destruction caused by the war, which has entered a stage of genocide since October 7, 2023, with absolute American support, resulting in more than one hundred and sixty-seven thousand martyrs and wounded, mostly children and women, in addition to more than fourteen thousand missing.