UNICEF reports that nine out of ten children in Gaza are suffering from a lack of food necessary for proper growth

On Thursday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that nine out of every ten children in the Gaza Strip cannot consume nutrients from sufficient food groups to ensure their healthy growth and development. UNICEF added, in a press statement today reported by the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA), “The war and restrictions imposed on humanitarian aid led to the collapse of the food and health systems, which led to catastrophic consequences for children and their families.”

The organization indicated that five sets of data collected between last December and April showed that nine out of every ten children in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to Israeli bombing since last October, suffer from severe food poverty, which means that they are fed on two food groups. Or less per day to survive.

In the Gaza Strip, months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have led to the collapse of the food and health systems, with catastrophic consequences for children and their families,” UNICEF added. 

This is evidence of the horrific impact of conflict and restrictions on families’ ability to meet children’s nutritional needs and of the rapid rate at which children are at risk of life-threatening malnutrition,” UNICEF said. Israel says it imposes no restrictions on humanitarian supplies to civilians in Gaza and has blamed the United Nations for slow aid deliveries, saying its operations are ineffective. 

But with the specter of famine emerging in areas of Gaza and some children dying from malnutrition and dehydration, even Israel’s strongest allies have increased pressure on it to do more to allow food in. 

To meet the minimum level of dietary diversity for healthy development, children must consume foods from at least five of eight food groups, as determined by the dietary diversity score used by UNICEF and WHO. These include breastfeeding, eggs, dairy products, meat, poultry, and fish, among other groups. UNICEF said that 27 per cent of children globally suffer from severe nutritional poverty in early childhood, which amounts to 181 million children under the age of five.

The report, Child Food Poverty: Nutrition Deprivation in Early Childhood, examined food poverty among the world’s youngest in 100 countries. More than one in four children facing food poverty means 180 million people’s growth and development are at risk.

In Gaza and Somalia, cities where more than half of the children are facing food poverty due to Israeli brutality and natural disasters, stated the report, highlighting how fast children were being placed due to the threat of malnutrition disease.