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June 12, 2024. – As the conflict in Rafah escalates, humanitarian access to the southern part of the besieged area has been drastically reduced.
Around 3,000 children in southern Gaza are at risk of dying from untreated moderate and severe acute malnutrition, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Heart-wrenching violence and displacement continue to affect desperate families’ access to health facilities and services.”
“This is equivalent to approximately three quarters of the approximately 3,800 children who received life-saving care in the south before the escalation of the Rafah conflict,” the entity noted.
The agency said preliminary results of recent malnutrition screening showed an increase in cases of moderate and severe malnutrition since the second week of May as the offensive escalated and aid delivery and humanitarian access were restricted.
In this sense, “despite a slight improvement in the delivery of food aid to the North, humanitarian access has been significantly reduced in the South,” UNICEF said.
In this regard, Adele Khodr, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said that these babies are “at serious and immediate risk of becoming seriously ill, developing life-threatening complications and joining the growing number of children and girls who have been murdered by this senseless man-made thing.”
“UN agencies seek to guarantee that humanitarian operations can continue to safely collect and distribute aid to children and their families. We need better operating conditions on the ground, more security and fewer restrictions. But ultimately, what the children need most is a ceasefire,” he said.
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