In forcibly starved Gaza, ‘even breathing is a struggle’
With more and more children in besieged Gaza suffering from severe malnutrition, health workers say there is not enough medicine to nurse them or ease their pain.
One nine-year-old girl, Lamia, weighs just 10kg (22 pounds) – the average weight of a healthy one-year-old – her mother told Al Jazeera.
“She is not doing well at all and her whole heath situation is not achieving any progress. Now, even breathing is a struggle,” Lamia’s mother said. “Doctors say they have no medicine, no lab tests, no treatment to save her.”
Fawaz al-Husseini, a paediatrician who specialises in malnutrition, told Al Jazeera children like Lamia have no hope of receiving proper care in Gaza, where there is not enough food or nutritional supplements.
“We don’t have the basic needs for life,” said al-Husseini, adding that such children are in “dire need of treatment abroad”.
Israeli forces arrest seven fishermen in Gaza City
Israeli forces have arrested seven fishermen off the coast of Gaza City and are holding them at an unknown location, report our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
During the war on Gaza, Israeli naval forces have repeatedly fired at and killed fishermen in the territory’s waters, which Israel’s military has declared off-limits. Still, some desperate for food continue to risk the waters to fish.
Child malnutrition hits bleak new record, says UNICEF
The share of screened children found to be acutely malnourished in Gaza rose to a record 13.5 percent in August, up from 8.3 percent the month before, according to the UN children’s agency.
In Gaza City, the rate was higher, reaching 20 percent in August, UNICEF said.
The agency added the proportion of hospitalised children suffering from the life-threatening form of malnutrition – severe acute malnutrition – has also surged across the besieged territory, climbing to 23 percent compared with 12 percent six months ago.
“No child should suffer from malnutrition, which we can prevent and treat when we have the access and can deliver safely,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
She noted that Israel’s military attacks on Gaza City have forced about a dozen nutrition centres to shut down, “leaving children even more vulnerable” there.
“Nutrition services must be protected in Gaza City and across Gaza,” she stressed.
Number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 64,718
The Health Ministry in Gaza has just released its latest daily report on casualties as a result of Israeli attacks across the besieged territory. It said over the last 24-hour reporting period, the bodies of 72 people had been brought to hospitals in Gaza. Another 356 people were wounded, it added.
These figures bring the number of people killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war to 64,718, with 163,859 wounded.
Israeli army fire kills five aid seekers in northern Gaza
Israeli forces have fired at aid seekers in northern Gaza, killing at least five people and wounding others, according to local medical sources cited by our colleagues on the ground.
The casualties add to five other aid seekers killed in earlier Israeli attacks today.
