UNICEF: 'Malnourished babies in Gaza slowly perishing under world’s gaze'

By Vatican News

The humanitarian aid agency UNICEF has sounded the alarm over the tragedy unfolding in Gaza.

“The child deaths we feared are here, as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip," says Adele Khodr, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, who spoke of the humanitarian catastrophe in interviews with international media following a statement she released on Sunday.

“At least ten children have reportedly died because of dehydration and malnutrition in Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Northern Gaza Strip in recent days. There are likely more children fighting for their lives somewhere in one of Gaza’s few remaining hospitals, and likely even more children in the north are unable to obtain care at all."

In the UNICEF statement, Adele Khodr says the widespread scarcity of nutritious food, clean water, and medical services is a direct result of "impediments to access and multiple dangers facing UN humanitarian operations," which is weighing heavily on children and mothers and their ability to breastfeed their babies, especially in the Northern Gaza Strip.

UNICEF, together with other international emergency aid agencies, has appealed for free access to resolve the humanitarian crisis, prevent famine, and save children's lives.

They have renewed their requests for multiple, reliable entry points to bring aid in from all possible crossings, including to northern Gaza. They are also asking the Israeli authorities "for security assurances and unimpeded passage to distribute aid, at scale, across Gaza, with no denials, delays and access impediments."

Since October, UNICEF has sounded the alarm over the Gaza death toll and its potential to "increase exponentially if a humanitarian crisis emerged and was left to fester." It says the situation has only worsened since then and that "an explosion in child deaths" is imminent if the burgeoning nutrition crisis is not addressed. 

"Now, the child deaths we feared are here and are likely to rapidly increase unless the war ends, and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved."

The humanitarian agency notes the tragic "sense of helplessness and despair among parents and doctors in realizing that lifesaving aid, just a few kilometres away, is being kept out of reach....but worse still are the anguished cries of those babies slowly perishing under the world’s gaze."