Over 9,000 Kids in Gaza Treated in Hospitals for Acute Malnutrition in the Month of October, UN Reports.
Even with a truce that was announced two months prior, malnutrition persists in causing damage among Gaza’s youngest residents. The latest UN figures indicate that more than 9,000 children were admitted to hospital with acute malnutrition in just the month of October.
Even though the direct risk of famine has diminished for the majority of the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza after the ceasefire announcement on 10 October, United Nations and relief organizations state continuing constraints around their aid convoys. They say these shipments do not meet the needs of a population enfeebled and distressed by a prolonged two-year war, homelessness, and residing in inadequate housing.
“While visiting Gaza's medical facilities, I encountered several newborns who weighed less than one kilogramme, their tiny chests heaving with the effort of staying alive,” remarked Tess Ingram, a official with the UN child protection agency Unicef.
Shockingly High Numbers Persist
Based on Unicef data, 9,300 children were received care for severe acute malnutrition in October. That figure is considerably lower than the maximum of 14,000 children reported in August, but far greater than the child malnutrition rate observed during the earlier truce in February and March of this year.
“It’s still a shockingly high number,” Ingram commented, speaking to reporters by video from Gaza.
In October, about 8,300 expectant and nursing mothers were also treated for acute malnutrition.
“This development is a stark caution and it is expected to lead to infants with low birth weights arriving in the Gaza Strip for many months ahead,” Ingram stated further. “The situation persists. Generations of families, including those being born now into this ceasefire, have been forever altered by the suffering they endured.”
Humanitarian Shipments Are Still Inadequate
UN organizations report that aid deliveries crossing into Gaza have risen since the height of the war, but are nevertheless wholly insufficient relative to the requirements of the population.
Typically 140 aid trucks a day have entered during December to date, in shipments coordinated by the UN and the International Organisation for Migration. That is well below the aim of 600 trucks a day agreed upon in the ceasefire.
This data exclude bilateral aid donations and trade deliveries, which have grown more steeply than shipments organized by the UN under the ceasefire. They have brought down prices for numerous items, but they are still unattainable for the overwhelming majority of people in Gaza who have had zero earnings for over 24 months and who have used up all their saved funds.
Logistical Hurdles
Since the ceasefire, aid has been facilitated via a multinational hub called the Civil-Military Coordination Centre run by the US and Israel and involving representatives of other countries supporting the ceasefire. Nevertheless, diplomats and aid officials say that the Israeli army continues to have the ultimate authority in authorizing shipments into Gaza.
The UN reported that from eight humanitarian convoys coordinated with Israeli authorities on a recent Sunday, only four had been facilitated.
