March 8, 2024 (EIRNS)—Hunger is killing the children of Gaza. Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza which Israeli forces have long cut off from food supplies, leaving the 300,000 or so people estimated to still be there to eat grass and animal fodder. At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration at the north’s Kamal Adwan and Shifa Hospitals, reported AP, citing the Gaza Health Ministry. Most of those who have died are children under the age of 15, but the victims also include a 72-year old man.
Particularly vulnerable children are also beginning to succumb in the south, where access to aid is more regular, the AP report adds. At the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, 16 premature babies have died of malnutrition-related causes over the past five weeks, one of the senior doctors told The Associated Press. “The child deaths we feared are here,” Adele Khodr, UNICEF’s Middle East chief, said in a statement earlier this week.
