The United Nations warned on Monday that the alarming lack of food, widespread malnutrition, and rapid spread of diseases could lead to an “explosion” in child mortality rates in the Gaza Strip.
Twenty weeks into the war waged by Israel against Hamas, UN agencies reported that food and clean water have become “very rare” in the besieged Palestinian territory, with nearly all young children suffering from infectious diseases.
Ted Chaiban, the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, stated that Gaza is on the verge of witnessing an “explosion in preventable child deaths, which would double the already unbearable child mortality rate.”
At least 90% of children under the age of five in Gaza are affected by one or more infectious diseases, according to a report by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the World Food Programme.
70% had suffered from diarrhea in the past two weeks, an increase of 23 times compared to 2022.
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s Emergency Program Executive, said, “Hunger and disease are a deadly combination.”
Ryan added, “Hungry, weakened children with severe trauma are more susceptible to diseases. Sick children, especially those with diarrhea, cannot absorb nutrients well.”
According to a UN assessment, more than 15% of children under two years of age, or one in six children, suffer from “severe malnutrition” in northern Gaza, almost completely deprived of humanitarian aid.
UN agencies noted that “these data were collected in January, and the situation is likely to be more severe now.”
In southern Gaza, 5% of children under two years of age suffer from severe malnutrition, according to the assessment.
The UN agencies stated that “this deterioration in the nutritional situation” of the population within three months is “unprecedented globally.”
The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack on southern Israel launched by Hamas on October 7, killing more than 1160 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, according to a tally prepared by Agence France-Presse based on official Israeli data.
The toll of Israeli military operations in Gaza rose to 29,029 killed and 69,028 wounded since October 7, according to the Health Ministry in the territory.
