The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that one in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City as cases increase every day.
“Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak, and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need. More than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger,” Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, said.
He added that parents are too hungry to care for their children: “Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food, or means to follow medical advice.”
This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave.
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“UNRWA frontline health workers are surviving on one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all. They are increasingly fainting from hunger while at work. When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing,” he stated.
Lazzarini called on humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
“We, at UNRWA, have the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food and medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt,” he said.
Salim Oweis, a UNICEF official in Jordan, said that Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food could end by mid-August in Gaza if Israeli blockade continues.
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He noted that the situation could turn “dangerous” as children are facing hunger and starvation currently.
Reportedly, UNICEF can now only feed 3,000 children with the amount of RUTF left.
In contrast, the organization gave RUTF to around 5,000 children during the first fourteen days in July.
A WHO official also confirmed that the majority of malnutrition treatment goods will be finished quickly if more aid doesn’t arrive.
Meanwhile, WHO also added that the group would have to halt its operations which focuses on treating pregnant women and children, and urged more aid into the war-torn city.
Rights groups around the world have called for an urgent ceasefire amid worsening situation in Gaza.
(Some Inputs From ANI)
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