Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that children are dying of starvation in northern Gaza. Over the weekend, WHO visited the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals for the first time since early October, according to the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The dire situation in Gaza was mentioned by Ghebreyesus in a social media post. Ten children died due to a lack of food and ‘severe malnutrition’ and many hospital buildings were destroyed, the director-general noted in his post.
Several children have died at Kamal Adwan Hospital from malnutrition and dehydration, according to Hamas’ health ministry in Gaza. The 16th child died in a hospital in Rafah, located in the southern part of the country.
Dr Tedros cited in an X post that, “Severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed in northern Gaza, where an estimated 300,000 people are living with little food or clean water. The lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children.”
“The visits were the WHO’s first in months despite our efforts to gain more regular access to the north of Gaza. The situation at Al-Awda Hospital is particularly appalling, as one of the buildings is destroyed,” the WHO chief added.
Last week, the United Nations (UN) issued a warning that a famine in Gaza was ‘almost inevitable.’ A senior UN aid official stated that around 576,000 individuals throughout the Gaza Strip, which is equivalent to one-quarter of the population, are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Moreover, one in six children under the age of two in the northern region of Gaza suffers from acute malnutrition.
Adele Khodr, the Regional Director of the UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, said that, “The child deaths we feared are here, as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip. These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable.”
The US began airdropping humanitarian aid to Gaza, including over 38,000 meals. According to aid agencies, the UK, France, Egypt, and Jordan have also carried out drops in the past. However, this method of providing supplies is inadequate.
Adele Khodr @ X
The deliveries themselves have occasionally turned fatal. The reports noted that at least 112 Palestinians were killed when large crowds of people dropped on lorries with help while Israeli tanks were present.
Israel said that the tanks fired alerting shots but did not hit the lorries, adding that numerous of the deceased were crushed or fled. While, Hamas denied the reports by saying there was ‘undeniable’ evidence of ‘direct firing at citizens.’
The chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, Philip Lazzarini, accused the Israeli government of trying to eliminate the UN agency there. The Israeli government has long accused UNRWA and other UN agencies of bias and anti-Semitism. Following Israel’s October attack, several Western countries, including the UK, suspended funding to UNRWA.
Lazzarini asserted that these actions were not solely in response to ‘neutrality breaches by some of the staff,’ but were also intended to ‘eliminate the status of refugees and make sure that this is not part of a final political settlement.’ As a result of dismantling his organization, the entire Gaza humanitarian response would collapse.