{"id":294005,"date":"2024-03-03T11:25:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T16:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=294005"},"modified":"2024-03-04T16:45:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T21:45:22","slug":"unicef-statement-3mar24","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/unicef-statement-3mar24\/","title":{"rendered":"Malnourished babies in Gaza slowly perishing under the world\u2019s gaze – UNICEF Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"
03 March 2024<\/div>\n
Statement by Adele Khodr, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa<\/div>\n

Fran\u00e7ais<\/a><\/p>\n

Espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

\u0627\u0644\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a\u0629<\/a><\/p>\n

Malnourished babies in Gaza slowly perishing under the world\u2019s gaze<\/strong><\/h2>\n

AMMAN\u2013<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe child deaths we feared are here, as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least ten children have reportedly died because of dehydration and malnutrition in Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Northern Gaza Strip in recent days. There are likely more children fighting for their lives somewhere in one of Gaza\u2019s few remaining hospitals, and likely even more children in the north unable to obtain care at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe widespread lack of nutritious food, safe water and medical services, a direct consequence of the impediments to\u00a0access and multiple dangers facing UN humanitarian operations,\u00a0is impacting children and mothers, hindering their ability to breastfeed their babies, especially in the Northern Gaza Strip. People are hungry, exhausted and traumatized. Many are clinging to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disparity in conditions in the north and south is clear evidence that aid restrictions in the north are costing lives. UNICEF and WFP malnutrition screenings in the north in January found that nearly 16 per cent – or 1 in 6 children under 2 years of age – are acutely malnourished. Similar screenings conducted in the south in Rafah, where aid has been more available, found 5 per cent of children under 2 years are acutely malnourished.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumanitarian aid agencies like UNICEF must be enabled to reverse the humanitarian crisis, prevent a famine, and save children\u2019s lives. For this we need reliable multiple entry points that would allow us to bring aid in from all possible crossings, including to northern Gaza; and security assurances and unimpeded passage to distribute aid, at scale, across Gaza, with no denials, delays and access impediments.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNICEF has been warning since October that the death toll in Gaza would increase exponentially if a humanitarian crisis emerged and was left to fester. The situation has only gotten worse, and as a result, last week, we warned that an explosion in child deaths was imminent if the burgeoning nutrition crisis wasn\u2019t resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, the child deaths we feared are here and are likely to rapidly increase unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sense of helplessness and despair among parents and doctors in realizing that lifesaving aid, just a few kilometres away, is being kept out of reach, must be as unbearable, but worse still are the anguished cries of those babies slowly perishing under the world\u2019s gaze. The lives of thousands more babies and children depend on urgent action being taken now.\u201d<\/p>\n

#####<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

03 March 2024 Statement by Adele Khodr, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Fran\u00e7ais Espa\u00f1ol \u0627\u0644\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a\u0629 Malnourished babies in Gaza slowly perishing under the world\u2019s gaze AMMAN\u2013\u00a0\u201cThe child deaths we feared are here, as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip. \u201cAt least ten children have reportedly died because of dehydration and malnutrition […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329,1338],"document-source":[2105],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1829,2033,2005,1741,6870,6871,1745],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6544,6542,6541,6538],"class_list":["post-294005","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-category-statement","document-source-united-nations-childrens-fund-unicef","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-children","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-hunger","document-subject-malnutrition","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-arabic","document-language-english","document-language-french","document-language-spanish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294034,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294005\/revisions\/294034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=294005"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=294005"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=294005"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=294005"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=294005"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=294005"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=294005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}