UNICEF: 9 out of 10 Children in Gaza Go Hungry

Nine out of 10 children in Gaza suffer from sever malnutrition according to UNICEF. The malnutrition manifested itself after the 7 October, 2023 war when Israel promised it would impose a “complete siege” on Gaza denying the 2.2 million population electricity, food, water and fuel.

“Five rounds of data collected between December 2023 and April 2024 have consistently found that nine out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip are experiencing sever food poverty, surviving on two or fewer fewer group per day,” a UNICEF report quoted by Palestinian news agency Wafa.

UNICEF added months of agression – this is the start of the nine month of war that Israel waged on Gaza – has resulted in the complete destitution and displacement of people who are being forced to move from one area to another in the enclave as their houses are being bombed.

To meet the minimum level of dietary diversity for healthy development, “children must consume foods from at least 5 of the 8 food groups determined by the dietary diversity score used by UNICEF and WHO,” as pointed out in Al Jazeera.  

The hunger and malnutrition is being exacerbated by the intence bombing the Gaza Strip has been subjected to in this war that saw Israel drop 70,000 tons of explosives on the enclave.

Tel Aviv’s “indiscriminate attacks” on Palestinian children and women are “clearly Israeli war crimes,” said the head of a Norwegian non-governmental organization, as quoted by the Anadolu Turkish news agency.

“It is obscene to continue waging war through refugee camps. Even if Hamas committed the war crime of hiding fighters among displaced civilians, these continued, indiscriminate attacks killing scores of children and women are clearly Israeli war crimes, he said on the X platform.

His comments came after at least 39 displaced Palestinians were killed, Thursday, in Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering thousands of displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the central Gaza Strip, according to Gaza authorities.

  • CrossFireArabia

    CrossFireArabia

    Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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