MSF says quarter of children in its Gaza clinics malnourished
Doctors Without Borders, a global medical charity also known by its French acronym MSF, says a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished. It blames Israel’s “policy of starvation”.
“Across screenings of children aged six months to five years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women at MSF facilities last week, 25 percent were malnourished,” it said, warning that “rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks alone.”
Gaza running out of specialised food to save malnourished children
Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Amman, Jordan has told the Reuters news agency that supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a crucial treatment, would be depleted by mid-August if nothing changed.
“That’s really dangerous for children as they face hunger and malnutrition at the moment,” he said.
Oweis said UNICEF had only enough RUTF left to treat 3,000 children. In the first two weeks of July alone, UNICEF treated 5,000 children facing acute malnutrition in Gaza.
“Most malnutrition treatment supplies have been consumed and what is left at facilities will run out very soon if not replenished,” a World Health Organization spokesperson said.
The WHO said a programme in Gaza that was aiming to prevent malnutrition among the most vulnerable, including pregnant women and children under five, may have to stop work as it is running out of the nutritional supplements.
Palestinian women care for their malnourished babies at the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital in Gaza City on July 23
Gaza death toll rises
At least 80 Palestinians, including nine aid seekers, have been killed and 467 others injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
In the same time period, nine bodies were also recovered from the rubble of the previous Israeli attacks, the statement published on Telegram said.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 59,676 Palestinians and injured 143,965 others since October 7, 2023, the ministry said.
The total number of aid seekers killed since Israel introduced a new aid mechanism in the enclave on May 27 has reached 1,092, with more than 7,320 starving people injured.
