“There are likely more children fighting for their lives somewhere in one of Gaza’s few remaining hospitals, and likely even more children in the north unable to obtain care at all,” Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
“These tragic and horrific deaths are man-made, predictable, and entirely preventable,” she added.
UNICEF said the widespread lack of nutritious food, clean water, and medical services in Gaza is “a direct consequence of the impediments to access and multiple dangers facing UN humanitarian operations.”
According to the UN agency, nearly 16%—or one in six children under two years of age—are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.
“Now, 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,” Khodr warned.
She called for allowing humanitarian aid agencies to bring aid into Gaza from all possible crossings, including to northern Gaza.
Responding to the “horrific” recent deaths of at least 15 Palestinian children due to malnutrition, United Nations aid agency UNRWA said the “deaths are man-made, predictable, and entirely preventable.”
“Gaza has become hell on earth. When will the world say “enough”?”
At least 15 children have martyred in the past few days at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza City, and the enclave’s health ministry has expressed fears for the lives of the six remaining children there.