Baby girl dies due to malnutrition in Gaza City
A baby girl identified as Janan Saleh al-Sakafi has died of malnutrition and dehydration in the Rantisi Hospital, west of Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera’s team on the ground.
Israel has imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip since March 2. No water, food or medical supplies have entered the enclave since.
At least 51 have died from malnutrition in Gaza, according to its Government Media Office.
UNICEF has warned earlier that about 335,000 children under the age of five are on the verge of death from acute malnutrition.
‘Heartbreaking’: Children go through garbage in Gaza in search of food
It is hard to see people finding food in Gaza any more. It has started to be quite visible in the past few days that we are at the height of critical days, as the World Food Programme and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have issued warnings over food shortages in the enclave.
In addition to the international organisations that have completely run out of stock, local community kitchens are not able to prepare meals for displaced people.
We see people roaming here on rubble-filled roads, and it is so tragic and heartbreaking to see children going through garbage in Gaza City, looking for whatever is left of canned food products, or cardboard to start fires.
There is no line of food delivery available for people here, and they are living on whatever they have gathered in the past.
However, they are running out as they consume what is left.
Gaza deaths due to malnutrition rise to 57: Media Office
A statement by the Government Media Office on Telegram says the number is expected to increase as the crossings into Gaza remain closed and the entry of aid, baby formula and nutritional supplements have been prevented by Israel.
It added that the vast majority of victims were children as well as sick and elderly people.
It said: “We condemn in the strongest terms the continued use of food by the Israeli occupation as a weapon of war and its imposition of a stifling blockade against more than 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip by completely closing the crossings for the 63rd consecutive day.”
The office called on “the international community, humanitarian organisations and human rights organisations to take immediate and effective action and exert pressure by all means to open the Rafah border crossing and all other crossings”.
