Six children died due to malnutrition in Gaza hospitals as Israel’s attacks on Gaza continue
Six children have died in hospitals in northern Gaza due to lack of water and malnutrition, the Ministry of Health in the besieged Palestinian Territory has said, adding that the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged territory is worsening.
The ministry said on Wednesday that two children died at Al-Shafa hospital and four children died in Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, while seven others are in critical condition.
“We call on international agencies to intervene immediately to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in northern Gaza,” Health Ministry spokesman said in a statement as Israel’s attacks on Gaza continue.
The international community needs to stop the genocide in Gaza, morally and ethically and facing the human test.
Kamal Adwan Hospital Director Ahmed Al-Kahlot said that the hospital service was stopped due to lack of fuel to run the generator in the hospital. On Tuesday, Al Audah Hospital in Jabalia was also out of service for the same reason.
In a video posted on Instagram and verified by a journalist Ibrahim Muslim shows an infant on a bed inside the pediatric ward of Kamal Adwan Hospital, as the electricity comes on and off.
Children in the department are suffering from malnutrition and lack of infant formula, Muslim said, and essential equipment has stopped working due to frequent power outages as a result of fuel shortages.
The Palestinian group Hamas said on Wednesday that the closure of Kamal Adwan Hospital would worsen the health and humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza, which is already teetering on the brink of famine as Israel halts or blocks aid missions.
‘Genocide’ and Starvation’
On Wednesday, Israel said a convoy of 31 trucks loaded with food had entered northern Gaza. The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military office that oversees Palestinian civilian affairs, also said about 20 other trucks entered the north on Monday and Tuesday.
It was the first major aid shipment in a month to the devastated, isolated region, where the United Nations has warned of rising hunger.
Israel has blocked the entry of aid into Gaza for weeks, with Israeli protesters calling for demonstrations to stop aid being allowed into the territory despite widespread hunger and disease.
UN officials say Israel’s months-long war, which has killed nearly 30,000 people in Gaza, has also pushed a quarter of the 2.3 million population to the brink of famine.
Project Hope, a humanitarian group that runs a clinic in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, said that 21 percent of pregnant women and 11 percent of children under the age of 5 were malnourished in the past three weeks.
“People have reported eating nothing but white bread because fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods are nearly impossible to find or too expensive,” Project Hope said.
Qatar, France reiterated joint communication depth, breadth of strategic partnership.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, Qatar and France reiterated their opposition to the Israeli military offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza and called for “rejection of the killings and starvation of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General John Egeland also said Israel should allow aid trucks to go to Gaza to deal with the dire humanitarian crisis.
Hundreds of aid trucks line up at the Rafah and Karim Shalom crossings in Gaza for starving civilians. Not a single one has passed.
Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, said medical workers were struggling to serve the millions of displaced people in Gaza living in horrible conditions with nowhere to go.
“Health care is under attack, it’s collapsing. The whole system is in disarray. We’re working out of tents trying to do what we can. We treat the wounded and I’m not even talking about mental wounds. People are desperate. They don’t know what to do anymore,” said Manny Nicolai of MSF.
