Children under 5 in Gaza go at least 1 in 3 days without food: Reports
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Since May 6, when "Israel" closed the main humanitarian aid gates into Gaza, only around eight aid trucks entered on average each day, about 1% of the 500 to 600 trucks needed.
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Palestinian children wounded in the Israeli bombardment on a residential building are brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, June 4, 2024. (AP)
Most children under the age of five in Gaza are forced to suffer at least one day without food, as confirmed by aid groups and supported by a humanitarian aid group survey which showed that 85% of children under five were deprived of food for at least one day every three days.
At least 30 children have been recorded to have died as a result of starvation so far, according to a report by Truthout.
The report noted that since May 6, when "Israel" closed the main humanitarian aid gates, only around eight aid trucks entered on average each day - about 1% of the 500 to 600 trucks that the UN said were needed to meet Palestinians’ needs.
Sally Abi Khalil, Middle East and North Africa director for Oxfam, said in a statement, “By the time a famine is declared, it will be too late. When hunger claims many more lives, nobody will be able to deny the horrifying impact of Israel’s deliberate, illegal and cruel obstruction of aid,” adding, “Obstructing tonnes of food for a malnourished population while waving through caffeine-laced drinks and chocolate is sickening.”
Read next: 3,500 Gaza children at risk of death amid Israeli starvation tactics
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that more than four in five children in Gaza have gone a whole day without eating at least once in the past 72 hours.
"Children are starving," WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said in a statement.
Doctors at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital are demanding more aid, particularly milk, to treat malnourished children as the closure of the Rafah crossing, the main route for aid from Egypt into Gaza, has worsened the situation since it came under the control of Israeli forces on May 7.
"The occupation has prevented the entry of food, particularly milk, for children, which has led to serious weakness in the body, very poor growth, and infection by numerous diseases," one doctor told AFP as he studied a patient's X-ray in his office.
This comes as the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza due to the Israeli genocidal war ongoing since October 7 has now reached 36,550, in addition to 82,959 injuries, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced Tuesday in its daily report.
