(Repair a typo in a second shot)
Agency help reports a rapid increase in cases of child malnutrition in Gaza
Hospitals in Gaza are fighting limited nutrition of pasture and therapeutic milk supplies for malnourished children
Death to malnutrition Spike
Bywood Abu Alcast, Olivia Le Poidvin and Nidal Al-Michougrabi
Gaza City/Geneva/Cairo, 22 August (Reuters) – The hungry crisis in Gaza is at the point of reversal, with critically low delivery of fortified milk and special nutritional pastes worsens food deficiency and pushes more children into starvation, according to auxiliary agencies. On Friday, the Integrated Food Security (IPC) classification, the main global hunger monitor cooperating with the UN and other help agencies is due on Friday. The provisional statement issued at the end of July said the famine “plays” in Gaza. Reuters previously announced the IPC fight to get access to the data needed to assess the crisis.
After global shouts in Israel, she seriously limited the help of March, her army began to allow more food to Gaza at the end of July.
However, the volumes are too small and the distribution is too chaotic to stop more people, while those who are already hungry or vulnerable do not receive their life -saving accessories, three hunger experts, and six agencies.
According to data from the Ministry of Health of Gaza, proven by the World Health Organization, the death of malnutrition and starvation is spreading.
22 months after Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, 89 deaths were attributed to malnutrition or starvation, mostly children under 18 years. In just the first 20 days in August, 133 deaths occurred on Wednesday, of which 25 to 18 years.
“We see the worst possible humanitarian disaster we can even measure,” said Jeanette Bailey, management of children’s nutrition in the International Rescue Committee, and the organization of help in New York.
“There will be many more children of dying, much pregnant and nursing women suffering from malnutrition.”
Israel does not accept that there is widespread malnutrition among the Palestinians in Gaza and challenges the data on the mortality of hunger given by the Ministry of Health in Hamas in Gaza, and claims that death was due to other medical causes.
Reuters could not independently confirm the data in this story, including those concerning malnutrition or famine related to the mortality and supplies of various food products. Some of the most malnourished children are in several few hospitals that still operate in Gaza, where doctors seek to store special therapeutic milk.
In the hospital of Rantisi in Gaza, Dr. Ahmed Basal picked up an infant, the arm of the rod thin and praised from the waste. He said that a normal formula, even though it is available, costs up to $ 58 per carton, while mothers were too malnourished for breastfeeding.
Aisha Wahdan gave her eight -month -old son Hatem to fortified milk from the bottle and said she tried to shut down him on wild plants like the rooh, chamomile and thyme before she arrived at the hospital because she couldn’t breast.
“There was no milk. I used natural herbs and tried everything because there was no milk substitute,” she said.
Some of the ordinary child recipes needed for those whose mothers are dead or unable to breastfeed, or when the child is good, has entered the gaza from the release of the blockade, UNICEF said on Tuesday. However, the agency said it has shares for only 2,500 children per month and estimates that at least 10,000 children need a formula.
“Without consistent entry and distribution of items such as specialized additional feed objects – high -energy biscuits and fortified meals – we observe the crisis that can be preceded into extensive emergency,” said Antoine Renard, director of the Palestinian country of world food.
“At first it affects the most vulnerable groups, but of course it will spread,” he said.
Cogat, an Israeli military agency responsible for assistance, said in a statement on the medium 12. August that most of the deaths of the malnutrition by the Palestinian health authorities were caused by other health conditions.
Ill -malnutrition experts say that deaths among people with existing health problems are typical in the early stages of the hungry crisis.
Israel has recognized the lack of food, but accuses the UN for not effectively distributing supplies and Hamas for stealing him, which the groups denies. The official Israeli overview found that “no signs of a large phenomenon of malnutrition between the Gaza population,” Cogat said.
In response to the request for commentary on the reaction of Israel to the lack of Cogat supplements, the Israeli army is acting to “allow and facilitate the ongoing entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza belt in accordance with international law”.
Ismail al-Thawabt, director of the Gaze Hamas Run media office, said the government believes that famine conditions are more serious than mentioned. “Hamas likes more than anyone else to help flow to Gaza and reach out to our people,” he said. The UN Human Rights Office accused Israel of “weapons” of food for civilians in June and called it a war crime after documented hundreds of people killed by the Israeli army when they tried to achieve distribution sites to help the operation of Israeli and the US supported by Gaza’s humanitarian foundations (GHF).
The Israeli army acknowledged that her forces had killed some Palestinians looking for help and claim that he has given his soldiers new orders to improve their reaction.
Kholoud Al-Aqra has three months and weighs only two kilograms, her mother Heba Al-Aqra said far under nearly six kilograms for girls of this age of the world health organization.
Aqra is still breastfeeding, but with very small food he does not produce enough milk herself and no need to buy, she said. Aqra said that sometimes she goes one or two days with nothing food, but the only bowl of soup.
“I’m exhausted. I feel dizziness when I breastfeed her because there’s no good food for me either,” Aqra said by phone from their shelter in Deir Al-Laah in Central Gaza.
Reuters could not independently confirm the AQRA account details. It is in line with the agencies’ reports and the UN Hungry crisis and how it affects nursing mothers and their infants.
Typical treatment for an acutely malnourished nursing child, such as kholoud, would include several weeks of therapeutic milk, as well as the abundance of food for breastfeeding, including supplements, three nutritionists said.
Despite the increase in support and commercial food reserves entering Gaza, there is still very little available on the market or in charity community cuisine where the family is looking for food.
They also failed to find accessories for the child, her mother and two older children’s children.
When malnourished people do not receive accessories that can take at home along with a sufficient amount of normal nutritional food, their condition is beginning to deteriorate, Marian Adrianopoli, the Nutrition for the WHO.
“These children are vulnerable. Their immune system is threatened. They are susceptible to infections that can increase rapidly,” she said.
“The worsening of health conditions in a malnourished population can be very fast,” she said.
In an environment such as the Gaza environment, where most people live in tents or tags with very small clean water and a large part of the destroyed wastewater system is torn the disease and people with weakened immunity are even greater risk, all auxiliary agencies said.
All six agencies pointed to alarming indicators that showed a rapid deterioration last month, claiming to require significantly increased food imports to turn together with extra permanent supplements, such as peanut butter and enriched milk formula for the most endangered. The number of children of the younger five recorded as suffering by wasting food has almost doubled to more than 12,000 since June, the WHO said, while more than 2,500 had the most serious form of extreme weight loss that can lead to starvation death.
These figures are only children who have appeared on clinics or hospitals, so the real number is probably much higher, all agencies and hunger experts said.
At the same time, out of 290,000 children under five years of age, who need supplements to prevent them from slipping into heavy malnutrition, only 3% were reached in July, said Osha’s OSha report, which is 26% between April and June. In response to Reuters issues, OHA has credited a decline in the limits of the permitted quantity, active conflict and despair that results in looting.
UNICEF said its supplies of small nutrient traps packages have either run out or almost reached, with a sufficient number of children for the next month, the agency told the agency on Tuesday. Last month, Reuters said Gaza would also run out of other specialized therapeutic meals needed to save children who already suffer from heavy malnutrition, which causes loss to mid -August if nothing has changed.
Since then, UNICEF has been able to bring some of these accessories known as Rutf, but only just under 5,800 children for one month. UNICEF calculates the current case of 70,000 children requiring rutf.
Agriculture and fishing, traditionally the main sources of food inside the Gaza, were decimated by the war and more than 2 million people Enclave almost completely rely on imports.
Israel ended the ceasefire in March and deposited almost the overall blockade to help entering Gaza until the end of May, when the Humanitarian Gaza Foundation began to distribute food boxes in four places in the enclave.
GHF, in cooperation with Samaritan’s Purses, the evangelical organization of Christian Aid, has started with additional pastes last week, according to daily reports of GHF, a total of more than 150,000 packages, enough for 5,000 children per month.
The GHF and Samaritan handbag did not respond immediately to requests for commentary on this story.
Israel began to make it easier for supplies to help through the main checkpoint to Gaza since the end of July, but about 90% of foods converted to Gaza have been taken before the distribution point, either hungry or armed gangs, said OSH OCH.
Commercial reserves also began to enter Gaza – a step considered essential to increase the total amount of food and prevent sharper slip towards extensive malnutrition by providing fresh products and richer foods such as eggs, dairy products and meat. But few people can afford to buy.
“The total volume of nutrition reserves remains completely insufficient to prevent further deterioration. The market must be flooded. Dietary diversity must exist,” said Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization for Palestine. .
(Tagstotranslate) malnutrition of malnutrition children
