Gaza City, June 10 (RHC)-- Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip say at least 50 children are suffering from malnutrition and starvation in the northern part of the territory amid the Israeli regime’s total siege of Gaza.
The figure was given in a Sunday statement by Husam Abu Safiya, director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital. "Around 50 children suffering from malnutrition have been counted in just one week, and the specter of famine looms over Gaza,” the statement added.
“The health system in Gaza is a target of the [Israeli] occupation, but we are trying to resume medical services at a minimum despite fuel shortages,” Abu Safiya said. He warned that “the situation is catastrophic” across the territory, as Israeli forces prevent delivery of humanitarian aid following closure of Gaza's major crossings, especially Rafah and Karm Abu Salem, by the regime.
His warning came a few days after the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, said in a report that 90 percent of children in Gaza cannot eat nutrients needed for their proper growth as the bloody Israeli war hampers aid delivery to the besieged Palestinian territory.
UNICEF said five rounds of data collected between December 2023 and April 2024 have “consistently found that 9 out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip are experiencing severe food poverty, surviving on two or fewer food groups per day.”
It added that months of war and Israel’s restrictions on aid delivery have led to collapse of food and health systems in Gaza and resulted in "catastrophic consequences" for children and their families.
Israel waged its genocidal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023 after the territory's resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 84,494 others.
The regime is deliberately blocking and delaying the flow of food and basic supplies into Gaza and uses starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.
According to Palestinian media, more than 37 children have died during the ongoing Israeli aggression due to starvation in several hospitals across Gaza, especially in Kamal Adwan Hospital, where around 30 children have lost their lives.
