More than 10,000 children need treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza City, where the Israeli army launched a major ground offensive on Tuesday, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported.
The forced and massive displacement of families from Gaza City is a deadly threat to the most vulnerable,” said Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokeswoman in southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi zone.
Speaking to journalists at a televised press briefing in Geneva, Ingram warned of worsening rates of child malnutrition.
“We estimate that 26,000 children in the Gaza Strip currently require treatment for acute malnutrition, including more than 10,000 in Gaza City alone,” she said.
She explained that in August, more than one in eight children examined in the Gaza Strip suffered from acute malnutrition, “the highest level ever recorded”.
Nutrition centres in Gaza City have been “forced to shut this week due to evacuation orders and the military escalation”, Ingram added.
The Israeli army claims those evacuating southward to the Al-Masawi area will find food, tents, and medicine.
However, nearly two years into the war, Israel has frequently bombed so-called “humanitarian zones” in the Gaza Strip, claiming to target Hamas fighters there.
“It is inhumane to expect nearly half a million children, battered and traumatised by over 700 days of unrelenting conflict, to flee one hellscape to end up in another,” Ingram noted.
About 40 percent of the population of Gaza City and surrounding areas, estimated at one million by the UN, has been displaced, according to an Israeli military official.
Channels / Toyosi Eniola
