Malnutrition deaths mark ‘latest in the war on children’ in Gaza: UNRWA chief

These young deaths are “the latest in the war on children and childhood in Gaza,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The toll also includes some 40,00 boys and girls reported killed or injured due to bombardment and airstrikes, at least 17,000 unaccompanied and separated children, and one million deeply traumatised youngsters who are not getting an education. 

“Children are children,” he said.

 “No one should stay silent when children die, or are brutally deprived of a future, wherever these children are, including in Gaza.”

A sombre reunion

Thousands of sick children in Gaza need urgent medical evacuation, according to UN aid coordination office OCHA.

Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the agency, recalled the moment she recognized a young girl requiring treatment in a Gaza hospital after a year’s interval, once again suffering from malnourishment.

“I remembered her long eyelashes,” the veteran humanitarian told UN News, describing seven-year-old Janah, who she came across at Gaza City’s Patient Friendly Hospital on Tuesday.

“The first time I met her was in the IMC Field Hospital in southern Gaza in April 2024. Back then, she was severely malnourished and was getting treatment. And she gradually became better and was released eventually and went home.”

Evacuation saves lives

However, Janah was now back in hospital “because the malnutrition became aggravated and the condition that she has also is not properly diagnosed and cannot be properly diagnosed.” 

The girl is on a list of people to be medically evacuated for treatment outside Gaza.  The most recent evacuations took place last week when the World Health Organization (WHO) supported the transfer of 15 critically ill children to Jordan, but more than 14,800 people are still waiting.

Ms. Cherevko stressed the importance of ensuring that evacuations continue to save as many lives as possible.

More aid needed

She also pointed out that for children and adults with pre-existing conditions, their situation becomes worse with malnutrition.

“It wouldn’t be this way if they had proper nutrition, because these conditions existed before the starvation crisis and they weren’t getting as sick as they are now,” she said.

“This is why it’s imperative to make sure that we have proper conditions on the ground for adequate volumes of supplies to be entering – everything from food to medicine to nutrition to shelter,” she continued. 

“And these lifelines have to be really enabled for us to be able to deliver this aid to the people in need.”