GENEVA (Reuters) – Nine in 10 children in the Gaza Strip are not getting enough nutrients from enough food groups needed for healthy growth and development, UNICEF said on Thursday.
“Months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip have caused food and health systems to collapse, with dire consequences for children and their families,” UNICEF said.
According to the report, five pieces of data collected between December 2023 and April 2024 found that nine in 10 children in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli attack since October last year, are in severe food poverty and are surviving on two or fewer types of food a day.
“This is evidence of the devastating impact that conflict and restrictions are having on families’ ability to meet their children’s food needs – and the speed with which this is putting children at risk of life-threatening malnutrition,” UNICEF said.
Israel says it places no limits on humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza and blames the UN for slow deliveries, describing its operations as inefficient.
But as hunger spreads in the Gaza Strip and some children die of malnutrition and dehydration, even Israel’s staunchest allies are stepping up pressure on the country to import more food.
To meet the minimum dietary diversity required for healthy development, children need to consume foods from at least five of the eight food groups defined in the dietary diversity score used by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).
These include breast milk, eggs, dairy products, meat, poultry, and fish.
UNICEF said 27 percent of children worldwide live in severe food poverty during early childhood, amounting to 181 million children under the age of five.
Israel’s ground and air operations began after Hamas launched attacks on southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 253 hostages, according to an Israeli tally.
Health officials in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip said the attacks had killed more than 36,500 people.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Faber; Editing by Jan Harvey)
