UNICEF: 13,000 children in Gaza suffer from severe malnutrition; humanitarian crisis is worsening

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - International Service: According to Al Jazeera, UNICEF has announced that one in five children in the Gaza Strip is suffering from acute malnutrition. The organization added that the malnutrition rate in August set a new record compared to July and warned that this trend is increasing at an alarming rate.

 

UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, emphasized in an interview with the American CBS network that the immediate entry of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza must be guaranteed. “Palestinian children in Gaza have been living without enough food for months, and many of them do not even have the energy to cry. An average of 28 children have died every day since the war began,” he added.

 

Russell also said the current situation was the result of severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, warning that continuing the situation could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. He noted that aid workers are sometimes targeted while distributing food.

 

Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a statement that the Israeli regime must immediately allow humanitarian organizations to enter Gaza, reopen crossings and establish an immediate ceasefire. “The famine is the latest disaster to befall the people of Gaza, and the situation in the region has become a veritable hell,” UNRWA warned.

 

Local sources and satellite images indicate that more than 80 percent of Gaza's farms and food storage facilities have been destroyed.

 

Al Jazeera reports that some children in northern Gaza are in critical condition, and international organizations are unable to deliver sufficient aid due to the closure of the Rafah crossing.

 

UN experts have warned that the risk of mass child deaths will increase in the coming weeks if the siege continues.