The “painful and slow death" of 23 children in the north of Gaza due to malnutrition and dehydration "would be the tip of the iceberg" as only those who reached hospitals are reported, UNICEF’s deputy executive director Ted Chaiban has warned.
Ted Chaiban’s remarks came during a panel on the humanitarian situation in Gaza under the two-day European Humanitarian Forum 2024 in Brussels.
Chaiban stressed that one in every three children in Gaza’s north is acutely malnourished.
“There needs to be faster inspections at both Rafah and Kerem Shalom so that the population can get the support it needs,” he said and added: “This is a deliberate squeezing of humanitarian space.”
Regarding the alternative aid routes, he said that every route should be used, adding: “But the bottom line is the first shipment that came in by sea will be able to be the equivalent of 12 to 13 trucks. There are hundreds of trucks waiting on the border in Egypt as we speak.”
The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 has jumped to 31,819, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Tuesday.
The Gaza-based Health Ministry made the statement as Israel continues to wage its deadly onslaught on Gaza for the 165th day.
The ongoing attacks have also injured 73,934 Palestinians, it added.
Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli army committed nine massacres across the Gaza Strip, killing 93 people and injuring 142 others, the statement noted.
“Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads and rescuers can’t reach them,” it added.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
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