The shooting that broke out in Gaza on October 10 lasted only when all arms were called. At least 386 Palestinians, including 70 children, have died in sporadic Israeli attacks in recent months, or one in two Palestinians. The Israeli siege of Franja launched in October 2023 had other consequences. The United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef, has warned of one of them: acute childhood malnutrition. In October alone, more than 9,000 Palestinian children had to be hospitalized for this reason, according to the latest UN figures. Unicef and other agencies within the organization have a single blame: Israel, which continues to prevent the entry of aid in sufficient numbers to mitigate the damage caused by two years of bombing and blockade of supplies vital to survival.
In a video intervention from Gaza, UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram warned that although the immediate threat of disaster has diminished for the majority of the territory’s 2.1 million Palestinians, the entry of supplies remains very low compared to the needs of a traumatized population, many of whom have been left homeless and living in precarious shelters while the winter is cold.
In the coming hours, La Franja expects a storm called Byron which threatens floods and strong winds, which could raise awareness among thousands of Palestinians, even without these many evils which are coveted today. In the early hours of this month, violent winds began to ignite the precarious stores in the camps set up by the dock workers in the Palestinian territory.
The spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Agency particularly focused on the date on which 9,300 children received treatment for severe acute malnutrition in just one month, in October. Ingram stressed, however, that this “scandalously high” figure is lower than the 14,000 children treated for the disease in August. However, remember, the current data remains well above those recorded during the previous peak of the fire, last February and March, before Israel declared a total blockade on the entry of supplies, which only eased with the start of the truce during which this period of several months ended.
“In hospitals in Gaza, I met several newborns who weighed less than a kilo, with their small chests rising and falling due to the efforts to stay alive,” the spokesperson said before providing another piece of data. In October, around 8,300 embarrassed or breastfeeding women were hospitalized for acute malnutrition. This “pattern” indicates that, in the coming months, many more low birth weight children will be born in the invaded Palestinian territory where Israeli attacks have killed more than 70,000 people.
On average, 140 aid trucks arrived each day, in convoys organized by the UN and the International Organization for Migration. This figure is well below the commitment of 600 trucks per day established for the fight against the fire. If the volume of supplies falls short of the enormous needs caused by the years of war, neither does the type of aid Israel gives most.
Israeli authorities ban a long list of supplies because it ensures they can have “dual use”; In other words, if they can be used for military purposes, that is why they are called “luxury”.
At the end of September, before the fire broke out, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, denounced in an interview with CNN that Israel had banned the entry into Franja of therapeutic foods rich in calories and proteins which treat acute childhood malnutrition. A month earlier, the United Nations officially declared the situation in Hambruna in northern Gaza.
These supplements, like the so-called Pumply nut, are made up of a paste made from cocoa butter, milk, oil, sugar, vitamins and minerals. When we reach a stage of acute malnutrition, especially in children under five, it is not enough to start eating normal foods again; These supplements are essential for reversing the disease. Israel vetoes the entry of this enriched paste on the grounds that peanut butter is a “luxury” food.
According to data from this district of the Hamas government media office in Gaza, only 13,511 humanitarian trucks out of 36,000 installed in the intense fire zone have been allowed to enter the Palestinian territory, meaning “a compliance rate of 38%.”
Fuel deliveries, again according to this source, “will be limited to 315 trucks” out of the 3,000 agreed, or 10% of the agreed amount.
Storm Byron
In its latest situation report last month, the United Nations humanitarian coordination (OCHA in its English acronym) denounces another of the failures of agreement on the fire: the entry of refuge equipment.
“The United Nations and associated international NGOs have only been able to bring (to Gaza) 14,600 field stores for 85,000 people, a figure that increases to 48,600 stores if it also involves bilateral donations, while 1.3 million people continue to need urgent assistance to shelter during the winter,” says the document, which says that “the majority of international NGOs continue to be unable to provide humanitarian aid to the Franja and 4000 pallets of materials to (build) the shelters were rejected.”
The report recalls that, in the coming hours, the arrival of the storm is expected in the region. Byron “with torrential rains that could cause widespread flooding,” which happened before this fall in Gaza. Around 850,000 people; That is to say that many inhabitants of the territory find refugees in 761 accommodation centers “which are particularly vulnerable to flooding”, adds OCHA.
The Israeli Meteorological Service has warned that up to 200 millimeters of rain will fall in the region between this month and July, and that the majority of this amount will be concentrated in only a few hours each day. Haaretz. Winds could reach 80 kilometers per hour.
These forecasts include the territory on the small outskirts of Gaza, where the risk is much greater, causing massive population displacements and the destruction of drainage and sanitation systems, increasing the risk of epidemics. Some of them are aware of the fact that thousands of people take refuge in camping tents, having to pitch them even in the beach arena, for lack of a better place.
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