Around 3,000 children are at risk of dying in southern Gaza, after being left without treatment for moderate and severe acute malnutrition, “as heartbreaking violence and displacement continue to affect access to health facilities and services for desperate families,” reported the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
The entity noted that this “equivalent to approximately three quarters of the 3,800 children who were estimated to be receiving life-saving care in the south before the escalation of the conflict in Rafah.”
According to the agency, the first results of recent malnutrition examinations show that cases of moderate and severe malnutrition have increased since the second week of May, when the delivery of aid and humanitarian access was restricted due to the escalation of the offensive, says Telesur.
In this sense, “although there has been a slight improvement in the delivery of food aid to the north, humanitarian access in the south has decreased drastically,” said Unicef.
In this regard, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khodr, indicated that these infants “are at serious and immediate risk of becoming seriously ill, acquiring life-threatening complications and joining the growing list of children and girls who have been killed by this senseless war created by man.
United Nations agencies seek assurances that humanitarian operations can safely collect and distribute aid to children and their families without interruption. We need better operating conditions on the ground, with more security and fewer restrictions. But ultimately, what children need most is a ceasefire, he said.
