March 5, 2024 (EIRNS)—"Have you seen the images of Palestinian children?” asked Riyad Mansour, the Observer to the United Nations for the State of Palestine, as he held up a picture during the March 4 UN General Assembly debate on the United States’ misuse of its veto to prevent UN action against the genocide in Gaza. This child died today, he said. Palestinian children are dying in darkness and destitution, as Israel uses starvation as a weapon.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has reported that 15 children have starved to death in a single hospital, and the UN has said famine is “almost inevitable” in the territory, AFP reported today. The World Health Organization reached two northern hospitals with aid last weekend for the first time since October, finding “grim” scenes of starving children. “At least 10 children had died due to starvation,” doctors at the only pediatrics hospital in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan Hospital, told WHO team when they arrived. The number of children dying at the hospital from malnutrition and dehydration has now risen to 15, with another 6 acutely malnourished infants nearing death.
“If not now, when is the time to pull the stops, break the glass, and flood Gaza with the aid that it needs?” the spokesman for the UN Humanitarian Office Jens Laerke asked of reporters in Geneva. “That is what we need to see happen.”
