The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Sunday of the increasing number of child deaths in the Gaza Strip.
At least fifteen Palestinian children have died of dehydration and malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip as Israel tightens its blockade of the area.
“There are probably even more children fighting for their lives somewhere in the few remaining hospitals in Gaza, and there are probably even more children in the north who cannot get care at all,” said Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, adding that “these tragic and horrific human-caused deaths” are predictable and preventable.
She warned of acute shortages of food, drinking water and medical services in Gaza.
According to the UN agency, almost 16 percent, or one in six children under the age of two, are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.
“We now have the deaths of children that we feared, and the number is likely to increase rapidly if the war does not end and the obstacles to humanitarian aid are not removed immediately,” Khodr said.
She appealed to allow humanitarian agencies to deliver aid to Gaza from all possible border crossings.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours had increased by 90, reaching 30,410.
Photo©️ Anadolu Agency
