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Al Jazeera
18-04-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Children in Gaza survive on ‘less than a meal a day': Aid groups
Israel's total siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip have left Palestinian children surviving on less than one meal a day, according to an urgent warning by the leaders of 12 major aid groups in the enclave. The humanitarian aid system in Gaza 'is facing total collapse' due to 18 months of Israel's military operation and the recent imposition of a full blockade last month, the joint statement said on Thursday. An estimated 95 percent of the 43 international and Palestinian aid groups have already suspended or cut their services in Gaza, amid 'widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around', it added. 'Kids are eating less than a meal a day and struggling to find their next meal,' said Bushra Khalil, policy head of the aid group Oxfam. 'Everyone is purely eating canned food … Malnutrition and pockets of famine are definitely occurring in Gaza.' Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders, added that aid workers have been forced to watch people, many of them women and children, suffer and die while carrying 'the impossible burden of providing relief with depleted supplies'. 'This is not a humanitarian failure – it is a political choice, and a deliberate assault on a people's ability to survive, carried out with impunity,' she said. In Gaza City, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported on Friday that the enclave was running out of baby formula, leaving children and infants malnourished. 'We have seen many severe malnutrition cases. Families are not able to provide for their most basic needs, even for the most vulnerable – children and newborn babies. Baby formula is largely missing from the markets and pharmacies,' Mahmoud said. 'Gaza is quickly running out of all necessities.' Outside Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Palestinians told Al Jazeera they are losing their children to malnutrition. Fadi Ahmed, who lost his son, said hospital staff discovered 'massive infections in the boy's lungs, which led to a severe lack of oxygen in his blood'. 'The boy's weakness and severe malnutrition led to his inability to resist and then to his death … after spending one week at the hospital.' Intisar Hamdan, a grandmother, said she lost her grandson because his parents could not find any milk for three days. 'Children are suffering from not just malnutrition, but also serious medical complications and diseases that cannot be easily treated and require medical supplies that are scarce,' Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum reported. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, at least 60,000 children are considered malnourished in the Palestinian territory. The aid groups said Gaza holds the record of being 'the deadliest place on earth for humanitarian workers', making it even more difficult to deliver services to children. Since October 2023, more than 400 aid workers and 1,300 health workers have been killed in Gaza, despite the requirement under international humanitarian law for humanitarian and health workers to be protected. 'The recent killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, whose bodies were found buried in a mass grave, triggered global outrage, but many violations and attacks go unreported,' it added. The aid groups are calling on Israel and the Palestinian armed group to guarantee the safety of their staff and to allow the safe, 'unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza', and for world leaders to oppose further aid restrictions.
Boston Globe
17-04-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Thousands of Gaza children are malnourished under Israel's food blockade, aid groups say
No food, fuel, medicine, or any other supplies have entered Gaza since Israel imposed its blockade on March 2. It renewed its bombardment on March 18, breaking a cease-fire, and seized large parts of the territory, saying it aims to push Hamas to release more hostages. Hundreds have been killed, and more than 400,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee their shelters in the latest of multiple displacements. A strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed a family of 10, including five children, four women, and a man, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Strikes in northern Gaza killed two other couples with nine children, according to the Indonesian Hospital. Advertisement A later strike hit a school sheltering displaced people in the northern district of Jabaliya, killing three people and a child. The blast left walls in rubble and classrooms strewn with debris, charred mattresses, and scattered cans of food. Advertisement The Israeli military strikes homes, shelters, and public areas daily, saying it is targeting Hamas militants, and blames militants for civilian deaths because they operate there. It says it tries to limit civilian casualties. There was no immediate comment on the latest strikes. The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said almost all of Gaza's more than 2 million people now rely on charity kitchens, which can prepare only 1 million meals a day. The meals mainly consist of rice or pasta with no fresh vegetables or meat. Other food distribution programs have shut down due to a lack of supplies, and the United Nations and other aid groups have been sending their remaining stocks to the charity kitchens. In markets — the only other place to find food in Gaza — prices are spiraling and shortages are widespread, with fresh foods nearly nonexistent. As a result, humanitarian aid is the primary food source for 80 percent of the population, the World Food Program said in its monthly report for April. 'The Gaza Strip is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months' since the war began, OCHA said. 'Kids are eating less than a meal a day and struggling to find their next meal,' said Bushra Khalil, policy head at Oxfam. 'Everyone is purely eating canned food. … Malnutrition and pockets of famine are definitely occurring in Gaza.' Hani Almadhoun, cofounder of Gaza Soup Kitchen, said his kitchen has food for about three more weeks. Already, he said, up to one in five of those who come to his kitchen for food leave empty-handed. Advertisement Water is also growing scarce, with Palestinians standing in long lines to fill jerry cans from trucks. Omar Shatat, an official with a local water utility, said people are down to six or seven liters per day, well below the UN estimate for basic needs. In March, more than 3,600 children were newly admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition, up from around 2,000 the month before, according to OCHA, which said 'the rapid deterioration of the nutrition situation is already visible.' Aid groups are also less able to treat malnourished children because of Israel's airstrikes and ground operations. Aid workers could only reach 22,300 children under 5 with nutrient supplements in March, down 70 percent from the month before. Only around 100 of the original 173 treatment sites still function, OCHA said. 'Humanitarians have been forced to watch people suffer and die while carrying the impossible burden of providing relief with depleted supplies, all while facing the same life-threatening conditions themselves,' said Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders. 'This is not a humanitarian failure — it is a political choice, and a deliberate assault on a people's ability to survive, carried out with impunity,' she said in a statement. A survey of 47 aid groups found that 95 percent of them have reduced or entirely halted operations, mainly because bombardment made it too dangerous, according to the joint statement by the heads of humanitarian organizations, which included the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Save the Children, CARE, and Medical Aid for Palestinians. Israel has largely stopped coordinating with humanitarian groups over their movements in Gaza. That means aid workers have no assurance the military won't strike them. COGAT, the military agency in charge of aid coordination, acknowledged stopping the system, which had been in place before the cease-fire. Advertisement Since mid-March, Israeli fire has hit the staff or facilities of at least 14 organizations, and around 60 aid workers have been killed, according to the statement. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday one of its facilities was hit by an explosion the day before, the second time in three weeks the organization had been struck. 'When our staff and partners, our convoys, our offices, our warehouses are shelled, the message is loud and clear: Even lifesaving aid is no longer protected,' the 12 aid organization heads said. 'This is unacceptable.' Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that the blockade is one of the 'central pressure tactics' against Hamas, which Israel accuses of siphoning off aid to maintain its rule. Aid workers deny there is significant diversion of aid, saying the UN closely monitors distribution. Rights groups have called it a 'starvation tactic.' Israel is demanding that Hamas release more hostages at the start of any new cease-fire and ultimately agree to disarm and leave the territory. Katz said that even afterward Israel will occupy large 'security zones' inside Gaza. Khalil al-Hayya, head of Hamas's negotiating delegation, said Thursday the group had rejected Israel's latest proposal along those lines. He reiterated Hamas's stance that it will return hostages only in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a lasting truce, as called for in the now-defunct cease-fire agreement reached earlier this year. Hamas currently holds 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Advertisement The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have since been released in cease-fire agreements or other deals. Of the 59 hostages still in captivity in Gaza, Israel believes 35 are dead. Israel's offensive has since killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
