An estimated one in three children under two years of age in the northern Gaza Strip suffer from wasting, the most serious form of malnutrition, compared to one in six reported last January, the non-governmental organization warned in a statement, stressing that the minors “do not receive the food or medical care they need to survive.”

They urgently need nutrient-rich and easy-to-consume foods, as well as essential medicines, including antibiotics, and sanitation facilities to combat the problem, the NGO noted.

However, the Israeli Army carried out more than 400 attacks against the medical sector in the Strip since last October, which caused the paralysis or destruction of 26 of the 36 hospitals in the territory.

Once severe acute malnutrition takes hold, children often develop other conditions because their immune systems begin to fail, the organization stressed, highlighting that diarrhea is widespread in Gaza due to mass displacement and exacerbated unhygienic conditions caused by the destruction of health infrastructure.

The NGO also accused Israel of delaying and prohibiting, in some cases, the entry of vital supplies such as food and medicine to the enclave.

“We are witnessing an annihilation of the physical and mental well-being of children in Gaza. The rate at which they have been pushed to the brink of death (and beyond) in the last six months is nothing short of astonishing,” criticized Xavier Joubert, national director of Save the Children in the occupied Palestinian territory. “It is inconceivable that life-saving food, nutritional products, and medical supplies are at the border, just miles from where children die needlessly and painfully from malnutrition,” he lamented.

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