Unicef has said that 90 per cent of children in Gaza are not getting enough food to ensure healthy growth and development.
According to a report from the United Nations agency for children, Israel’s eight-month offensive on Gaza has “brought the food and health systems to collapse and have had a catastrophic impact on children and families”.
Farmland has been devastated, livestock has been starved, and the fishing fleet has been decimated by the attack. Food processing and warehouse facilities have also been damaged, while specialist health services treating malnutrition have been destroyed.
The report, issued on Thursday, said: “Combined with severe [Israeli] restrictions on the import of commercial goods and humanitarian supplies, this military action has deprived millions of the food, water, and fuel they need.” It said that by March, the entire population of 2.3 million was suffering from “high levels of acute food insecurity, with half the population expected to face catastrophic conditions” next month.
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Unicef contrasted the current conditions with 2020, when 13 per cent of Gazan children suffered severe food poverty – meaning they were surviving on two or fewer food groups a day. Unicef defines severe food poverty as a diet of breastmilk or dairy and a starchy staple rather than fresh vegetables and fruit, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and pulses.
Unicef’s report coincided with a joint document from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) that warned: “The ongoing conflict in Palestine is expected to further aggravate already catastrophic levels of acute hunger, with starvation and death already taking place, alongside the unprecedented death toll, widespread destruction and displacement of nearly the total population of the Gaza Strip.”
The joint document said that unless hostilities end, full access is granted to relief agencies, and essential services are restored, “over a million people – half the population of Gaza – are expected to face death and starvation by mid-July.”
FAO director general Qu Dongyu said crises must be anticipated and pre-empted. “Acting ahead of crises can save lives, reduce food shortages and protect livelihoods at a much lower cost.”
WFP executive director Cindy McCain said: “Once a famine is declared, it is too late – many people will have already starved to death. In Somalia in 2011, half of the 250,000 people who died of hunger perished before famine was officially declared. The world failed to heed the warnings at the time.”
Ms McCain added: “We have proven solutions to stop these crises in their tracks, but we need the resources and the political will to implement them at scale before more lives are lost.”
Israel’s government press office did not respond to request by The Irish Times for a comment on the reports.
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