Updated 17.32 | Published 17.04
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full screen Newborn babies in an incubator at the Emirati hospital in Gaza in early March. Sixteen premature babies have died at the hospital in recent weeks, according to a staff doctor the Associated Press spoke with. Photo: Fatima Shbair/AP
The hunger situation in Gaza has worsened.
Almost every third child under the age of two suffers from malnutrition, according to Unicef.
Doctors are now warning that the babies born are small, sick or even dead, reports AFP.
The famine disaster has meant that the children who are now born are malnourished.
Dominic Allen, Representative of Palestine in UNFPA. Photo: Unfpa/Pressbild
That’s what Dominic Allen, the Palestinian representative in the UN Population Fund UNFPA, says.
– Doctors report that they no longer see any normal-sized babies, he tells AFP.
According to Allen, the number of complicated births has doubled since the war began. Among other things, pregnant women are forced to undergo caesarean sections without sufficient anesthesia.
In addition, Israeli authorities have prevented UNFPA from importing, among other things, equipment for midwives, Allen told AFP.
Hunger among children is increasing
The malnutrition in Gaza is so extensive that at least 23 children in northern Gaza have died from malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks.
In January, 15.6 percent of children under the age of two were estimated to suffer from malnutrition. Now the figure has doubled to 31 percent, according to the UN children’s agency Unicef.
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full screen An injured child at al Aqsa hospital earlier this year. Photo: Adel Hana / AP
And in northern Gaza, 4.5 percent of children in shelters and care facilities suffer from the most deadly form of malnutrition.
– How quickly this catastrophic child famine in Gaza has developed is shocking, especially when desperate aid deliveries are ready just a few kilometers away, says Unicef director Catherine Russell in a statement.
According to her, the demands that relief supplies should be allowed in have not helped.
– Instead, the situation for children gets worse with each passing day. Our efforts to provide life-saving help are hampered by unnecessary restrictions, and they cost children their lives, says Russel.
“Do everything we can”
Several UN agencies have warned of the risk of famine in Gaza since December. Since then, the situation has escalated.
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full screen Food supplies are dropped over northern Gaza by parachute. The picture is from earlier in March. Photo: Leo Correa/AP/TT
Meanwhile, Unicef has reached into Gaza with some humanitarian aid.
More supplies are expected to arrive this week. But according to Catherine Russell at Unicef, that is not enough.
– We are doing everything we can to prevent a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but it is not enough, says Catherine Russell.