GENEVA, Switzerland: An alarming lack of food, surg in malnutrition and the rampant spread of disease could spark an explosion in Gaza child deaths, the United Nations warned on Monday.
Twenty weeks into Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations (UN) agencies warned that safe water and food had become “incredibly scarce” in the Palestinian territory. It further alarmed that virtually all young children had infectious illnesses.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” deputy head of humanitarian action at the UN children’s agency UNICEF, Ted Chaiban said.
A joint assessment by the UN agencies for children, food and health said at least 90 percent of children under five in Gaza are affected by one or more infectious diseases.
Around 70 percent had had diarrhoea in the two weeks prior to the assessment, marking a 23-fold increase compared to the 2022 baseline.
“Hunger and disease are a deadly combination,” Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, said in a statement.
“Hungry, weakened and deeply traumatised children are more likely to get sick, and children who are sick, especially with diarrhoea, cannot absorb nutrients well,” he added.
“It’s dangerous, and tragic, and happening before our eyes.”
According to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 29,000 people, mostly women and children.
Since the beginning of the war, Gaza has been plunged into a nutrition crisis, with outside aid severely limited.
The UN assessment indicated that more than 15 percent of children under the age of two in northern Gaza — one in six — were acutely malnourished, while three percent were suffering from life-threatening severe wasting.
“As the data were collected in January, the situation is likely to be even graver today,” the UN agencies warned.
The assessment report further said that in southern Gaza, five percent of children under two were acutely malnourished.
