'Severe Wasting' in Children Rapidly Increases Across Gaza Amid Israeli Genocide
Israel has been accused of using starvation as a weapon as it carries out its ethnic cleansing in enclave.
Children across Gaza are rapidly wasting away as Israel continues to enforce a U.S.-backed blockade that has already resulted in at least 23 children in Northern Gaza dying of starvation and 31 percent in the north suffering from acute malnutrition.
UNICEF said in a statement Friday that the 31 percent marks a “staggering escalation from 15.6 percent in January.”
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Catherine Russell, the UNICEF director, said: “The speed at which this catastrophic child malnutrition crisis in Gaza has unfolded is shocking, especially when desperately needed assistance has been at the ready just a few miles away.”
“We have repeatedly attempted to deliver additional aid and we have repeatedly called for the access challenges we have faced for months to be addressed. Instead, the situation for children is getting worse by each passing day. Our efforts in providing life-saving aid are being hampered by unnecessary restrictions, and those are costing children their lives,” she said.
She called for an immediate ceasefire and “unimpeded passage needed to distribute that aid, without delays or access impediments.”
Randa Ghazy, of NGO Save the Children, told the outlet that Gaza was experiencing the worst level of malnutrition in the world.
“Pregnant women are not receiving the nutrition and healthcare they need, making them more susceptible to disease and increasing risks of death during childbirth,” she told the outlet.
Save the Children reported that Palestinian families in Gaza are “being forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation,” Mondoweiss reported.
TRENDPOST: Israel's actions in Gaza have been so heinous that Sen. Chuck Schumer, who once said it is his job to protect Israel in the U.S. Senate, called on new elections to take place to oust embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“At this critical juncture, I believe a new election in Israel is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government,” he posted.
Schumer continued, “People on all sides are turning away from a two-state solution—including Israel’s PM Netanyahu who has been rejecting Palestinian statehood and sovereignty As the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America and a staunch defender of Israel, I say: This is a grave mistake.”