A senior official with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has
appealed for wider and safer humanitarian access in Gaza, where
malnourished babies are slowly dying while the world watches.
“The child deaths we feared are here,” Adele
Khodr, UNICEF Regional
Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said
in a statement issued on
Sunday.
At least 10 children have died from dehydration and malnutrition
at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north in recent days, according to
reports.
Helplessness and despair
Ms. Khodr warned that “there are likely more children fighting
for their lives” in one of the few remaining hospitals in the
enclave, and perhaps even more in the north who cannot access
care at all.
She said parents and doctors must feel an unbearable sense of
helplessness and despair when they realize that lifesaving aid is
being kept out of reach, even though it is just a few kilometres
away.
“But worse still are the anguished cries of
those babies slowly perishing under the world’s
gaze,” she said.
“The lives of thousands more babies and children depend on urgent
action being taken now.”
Concern for northern Gaza
UNICEF fears more children will die unless the war ends and
barriers to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved.
Ms. Khodr said the widespread lack of nutritious food, safe water
and medical services, is a direct consequence of the impediments
to access and multiple dangers facing UN humanitarian
operations.
The situation is impacting children and mothers, hindering
their ability to breastfeed their babies. This is especially the
case in northern Gaza, where people are hungry, exhausted, and
traumatized, with many clinging to life.
Aid restrictions ‘costing lives’
“The disparity in conditions in the north and south is clear
evidence that aid restrictions in the north are costing lives,”
she said.
UNICEF and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) conducted
malnutrition screenings in the north in January. Teams
found that nearly 16 per cent of children aged two and under, one
in six, are acutely malnourished.
Similar screenings conducted in the south in Rafah, where aid has
been more available, showed that five per cent of children in
this age group are acutely malnourished.
Avert famine, save lives
“Humanitarian aid agencies like UNICEF must be enabled to reverse
the humanitarian crisis, prevent a famine, and save children’s
lives,” Ms. Khodr said.
“For this we need reliable multiple entry points that would allow
us to bring aid in from all possible crossings, including to
northern Gaza; and security assurances and unimpeded passage to
distribute aid, at scale, across Gaza, with no denials, delays
and access impediments.”
She recalled that UNICEF has been sounding the alarm since
October that the death toll in Gaza would increase exponentially
if a humanitarian crisis emerged and was left to fester.
The situation has only worsened, and last week the agency warned
that an explosion in child deaths was imminent if the burgeoning
nutrition crisis was not resolved.
“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,” she said.
