Children starving to death in Gaza as WHO says the 'key medicine' is a ceasefire
The World Health Organisation says children are starving to death in Gaza - and added the 'key medicine' needed in Palestine is an immediate ceasefire.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency's visit to Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza last weekend found "severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed." He said it was the first time since early October 2023 that WHO visited Gaza.
Dr Tedros said the situation at Al-Awda Hospital is "particularly appalling" since one of the buildings is destroyed, adding that Kamal Adwan Hospital - the only paediatrics hospital in the north of Gaza - is overwhelmed with patients. He said the lack of food resulted in the deaths of 10 children.
The WHO Director-General added that the health of patients is also being put at risk by the lack of electricity, especially in critical areas such as the intensive care unit and the neonatal unit. He called on Israel to ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered safely and regularly to Gaza but stressed the need for a ceasefire and peace which he described as "the key medicine" for patients.
Children wait for food with pots as Palestinians live under difficult conditions amid Israeli attacks (Anadolu via Getty Images)Dr Tedros wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: "We managed to deliver 9,500 litres of fuel to each hospital, and some essential medical supplies. This is a fraction of the urgent lifesaving needs. We appeal to Israel to ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered safely, and regularly. Civilians, especially children, and health staff need scaled-up help immediately. But the key medicine all these patients need is peace. Ceasefire."
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
Last week, the UN warned that famine in Gaza was "almost inevitable" with a senior aid official saying that at least 576,000 people across the Gaza Strip - one-quarter of the population - faced catastrophic levels of food insecurity. It also said one in six children under the age of two in the north were suffering from acute malnutrition.
Adele Khodr, regional director of the UN's children's agency, Unicef, said: "The child deaths we feared are here, as malnutrition ravages the Gaza Strip. These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable and entirely preventable." Last weekend, the US airdropped food over Gaza in the opening stage of an emergency humanitarian assistance authorised by President Joe Biden after more than 100 Palestinians who had surged to pull goods off an aid convoy were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops.
Aid agencies have warned that Gaza is on the brink of famine (Anadolu via Getty Images)Three planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 38,000 meals into Gaza on Saturday. The bundles were dropped in southwest Gaza, on the beach along the territory's Mediterranean coast. The airdrop was coordinated with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, which said it had two food airdrops Saturday in northern Gaza and has conducted several rounds in recent months.
"The amount of aid flowing to Gaza is not nearly enough and we will continue to pull out every stop we can to get more aid in," President Joe Biden said Saturday in a post on the social media site X. US Central Command said on X that "the combined operation included US Air Force and RJAF C-130 aircraft and respective Army Soldiers specialised in aerial delivery of supplies, built bundles and ensured the safe drop of food aid."
On Wednesday, hundreds of people ran along a seaside road on the outskirts of Gaza City to collect bags of flour and boxes of water and canned food donated by Turkey and Egypt and were part of a shipment trucked in from southern Gaza. South Africa, which filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, asked the court Wednesday to order Israel to allow in aid "to address famine and starvation" in Gaza.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron met with Benny Gantz, a visiting member of Israel's war Cabinet, and pressed him to increase the flow of aid into Gaza. "We are still not seeing improvements on the ground. This must change," Cameron said in a statement on X.
Meanwhile, European Union Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen will visit Cyprus on Friday to inspect installations at the port of Larnaca, from where aid would leave for Gaza if a sea route is established, Cypriot government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis said. EU spokesman Eric Mamer said the bloc is hopeful the corridor will open "very soon".
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
