Humanitarian situation in northern Gaza a ‘nightmare’
Dominic Allen, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative for Palestine, says the true depth of the crisis and unfolding “nightmare” in northern Gaza cannot be captured with pictures.
He told reporters via video conference how he saw a five-year-old Palestinian boy, with his slightly older sister, holding up a white flag as they walked toward a military checkpoint operated by the Israeli military. “These stories, these images, perhaps don’t do enough of a good job in helping to paint a picture of the tragedy and catastrophe that is happening right now in Gaza,” he said.
“I think what I took away was the looks in the eyes of the people, which the emotion is truly indescribable. Everyone we passed, everyone we spoke to was frail, was hungry,” Al Jazeera Arabic’s Biesan Abu-Kwaik quoted Allen as saying.
Palestinians gather to collect food in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip
Doctor says level of malnutrition for pregnant women ‘truly horrific’
Dr Brenda Kelly says new mothers are desperately struggling to keep themselves and their newborns alive during “huge and critical shortages of food, water and medical care”. She said colleagues on the ground in Gaza are reporting a “huge increase” in pre-term births and a rising number of miscarriages and stillbirths.
“The level of malnutrition is truly horrific,” Kelly, a consultant obstetrician at Oxford University, told Al Jazeera. “We know that many of the women, even prior to this conflict, coming into pregnancy had things like anaemia. With extreme malnutrition, it is absolutely true there are many more babies being born that are very much smaller than expected.”
UNICEF: ‘Staggering escalation’ in infant deaths in northern Gaza
The UN’s children agency says 31 percent, or one in three kids under the age of two in northern Gaza are now suffering from acute malnutrition, a “staggering escalation” from 15.6 percent in January.
“Malnutrition among children is spreading fast and reaching devastating and unprecedented levels in the Gaza Strip due to the wide-reaching impacts of the war and ongoing restrictions on aid delivery,” UNICEF said in a report.
At least 23 children have died of malnutrition and dehydration in northern Gaza in recent weeks, it said, also highlighting the mounting death toll of children at 13,450 since the war began.
Screenings found 4.5 percent of children suffer from “severe wasting”, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition.
#تغطية_مباشرة - عشرات المفقودين في قصف إسرائيلي لبناية من 7 طوابق تؤوي نازحين في حي الرمال بمدينة غزة، وحماس تقدم مقترحا بشأن صفقة تبادل إلى الوسطاء
يمكنكم متابعة تطورات #حرب_غزة عبر قناة الجزيرة على واتساب:https://t.co/oV6GNzGUoU https://t.co/QE17a8DqgK
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) March 15, 2024
Translation: Dozens of missing people in an Israeli bombing of a seven-story building housing the displaced in the Remal neighbourhood in Gaza City, as Hamas presents a proposal on a captive-exchange deal to mediators.
Survivors say at least seven displaced families were living in the tower block, and many are thought to be trapped beneath the rubble. Rescuers are using their bare hands to search through the debris. Reports are coming in that at least 36 Palestinians have been killed.
