The United Nations has warned that all children of Gaza under the age of five are at risk of life-threatening malnourishment, amid growing reports of starvation-related deaths as Israel continues to block aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip.
The UN’s World Food Programme said children in this age bracket – around 320,000 in number – have been affected by the collapse of nutrition services and are lacking access to safe water, breast milk substitutes and therapeutic feeding.
Paediatrician Seema Jilani told Al Jazeera that malnutrition “affects their entire body”, putting children at risk of multi-organ failure. She also said that starvation in Gaza is traumatic for children and that “developmental milestones will be missed”.
Hospitals in Gaza on Monday recorded six new deaths from famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including one child, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The total number of people who died from hunger-related causes since the start of the war now stands at 181, including 94 children.
The ministry also sounded the alarm over a “serious escalation” in cases of acute soft paralysis among children as a result of “infections and acute malnutrition”.
In a statement, it said it has so far recorded three deaths from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare condition that causes sudden numbness and muscle weakness in most of the body.
Entry of over 22,000 aid trucks blocked
Gaza’s government said Israel was deliberately blocking more than 22,000 humanitarian aid trucks from entering the territory as part of a systematic campaign of “starvation, siege and chaos”. The Palestinian territory has been under total Israeli blockade since March 2, shortly before Israel ended a two-month ceasefire and resumed attacks.
Mosab al-Dibs, 14, has been at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for about two months after suffering a severe head injury when an Israeli air raid struck his family’s tent in May.
The boy is largely paralysed and severely malnourished because the facility no longer has supplies to feed him. “Mosab now suffers from severe malnutrition,” his mother, Shahinaz al-Dibs, said. “He suffers convulsions as a result of a hit that affected his brain. Even his nerves are stiff.”
The situation in Gaza was nothing short of catastrophic.
by Ahmad Alhendawi, Middle East director of Save the Children International
At a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza, Samah Matar said her sons – six-year-old Yousef and four-year-old Amir – have cerebral palsy and need a special diet.
Youssef weighed 14kg (31lb) before the war. Now, he weighs 9kg (20lb). Amir, who weighed 9kg (20lb), is now less than 6kg (13lb). “Before the war, their health was excellent,” she said. “Now, there is no baby formula or diapers, and I can hardly find flour for them. Sugar, the main ingredient in their meals, is unavailable.”
Ahmad Alhendawi, Middle East director of Save the Children International, told Al Jazeera that the situation in Gaza was “nothing short of catastrophic.”
“This is about almost four months of this blockade, of starvation that has built over weeks and months, and to come back from that point of extreme malnutrition and starvation requires a sustained supply of food and medical equipment and also food supplements for children in need,” he said.
“It’s possible to reverse some [of the damage done to children by hunger], but I’m afraid that some of this damage would be irreversible at this stage.”
