United Nations: Suffering of Gaza children triples

Gaza – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

The UN announced that the number of children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza has tripled since last March as Israel continues its blockade of the Strip and prevents humanitarian aid from reaching it.

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said in a post on the “X” platform that about a third of children in Gaza City alone are suffering from malnutrition, noting that this figure is six times higher than it was before the end of the ceasefire last March and the imposition of the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Lazzarini added, “This is not a natural disaster but a man-made famine that could have been prevented.”

UNRWA’s data is based on a study of about 100,000 children under the age of five. The agency said that, along with other relief organizations, it has been unable to bring aid into the Strip for about six months, even though its warehouses in Egypt and Jordan contain enough supplies to fill 6,000 trucks, including three months’ worth of food.

In mid-July, UNRWA reported that 10% of children examined in its clinics were suffering from malnutrition.

More than one million children under the age of 18 in the Gaza Strip suffer from severe food shortages, while malnutrition threatens the lives of 40,000 infants under one year of age and 250,000 children under five.