UNRWA warns: Gaza's children are slowly dying in front of the world's eyes
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, has warned of the high death toll of children in the Gaza Strip amid a severe lack of food and access to safe water and medical services in the area.
In its message on X, UNRWA said that "children in the Gaza Strip are slowly dying before the eyes of the world." The statement was made following the death of 15 Palestinian children due to dehydration and malnutrition in the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in the north of the Gaza Strip. Also last Sunday, Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, expressed his concern about "the lives of 6 (other) children suffering from malnutrition and diarrhea in the intensive care unit due to the suspension of the electricity generator, oxygen plants and the weakness of medical services." Since October 7 last year, Israel has imposed a "total siege" against the Gaza Strip and cut off electricity, food and water to more than two million Palestinians living in the area. Last Sunday, the United Nations warned that child deaths "will increase dramatically" in Gaza if humanitarian aid is not increased as soon as possible. Gaza Adele Khodr, regional director of the United Nations Children's Fund, said in a statement that many of the reported child deaths in Gaza are "man-made, predictable and entirely preventable." Adele Khodr added that: "The severe lack of nutritious food, safe water and medical services, a direct result of the many obstacles and risks faced by the humanitarian operations of the United Nations, affects children and mothers." The United Nations official emphasized that the Palestinian people are hungry, tired and many of them are fighting to save their lives.
