In the past four months alone, nearly 19,000 children were hospitalized due to acute malnutrition – nearly double the cases in the first half of the year, UNRWA says.
The lives of more than 8,500 infants in Gaza are at risk as milk supplies are “nowhere near enough” in the besieged enclave, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has warned.
“One of our only functioning health centers has just 6 boxes to distribute – the first delivery in 3 months,” UNRWA said on Sunday.
In #Gaza, over 8,500 babies have received formula milk through UNRWA, but supplies are nowhere near enough. One of our only functioning health centres has just 6 boxes to distribute – the first delivery in 3 months.
With over 200,000 people relying on this clinic for primary… pic.twitter.com/7o5Z7plCe0
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 15, 2024
With over 200,000 people relying on this clinic for primary health care, dire shortages leave many, including babies and children, at high risk,” the UN agency emphasized.
It said “immediate aid” and a ceasefire “are vital to save lives.”
In the past four months alone, nearly 19,000 children were hospitalized due to acute malnutrition – nearly double the cases in the first half of the year, UNRWA said.
Ongoing Massacres
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Government Media office has condemned Israel’s latest massacres in the enclave which has killed more than 110 Palestinians.
The genocide in Gaza continues. The Israeli army comitted several massacres today in Gaza killing 100 Palestinian civilians including many women and children and injuring hundreds .
The Israeli army bombarded two schools that are used as shelters for the displaced Palestinian… pic.twitter.com/N9ZZBBp0ex— Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti (@MustafaBarghou1) December 15, 2024
“Over the course of more than 435 days of genocide, the Israeli occupation army continues to commit massacres … against the displaced, civilians, press crews, civil defense, municipal teams, medical teams, and personnel providing humanitarian aid,” Dr Ismail Thawabteh, director of the media office, said in a statement on Sunday.
Journalists Assassinated
He mentioned the killing earlier in the day of Ahmed Bakr Al-Louh, an Al Jazeera cameraman. “And before that, the martyr journalist Muhammad Jabr Al-Qarinawi, a correspondent for Sanad News Agency, erasing his entire family from the civil registry, and before that, the martyr journalist Muhammad Hamid Baalousha – correspondent for Al-Mashhad satellite channel was killed,” Thawabteh continued.
“Thus, the number of journalists killed rises to 196,” he said, ” … killed by the occupation with premeditation and deliberation.”
Al Jazeera Media Network has condemned Israel’s killing of cameraman Ahmed Al-Louh in Gaza as a “heinous crime”. Al-Louh was killed along with five Civil Defence responders in Nuseirat camp. pic.twitter.com/TKFcFgV3Du
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 16, 2024
The director noted that Israel bombed the field headquarters of Gaza’s civil defense teams, taking the total of civil defense workers killed to 94, reported the Middle East Monitor (MEMO).
At least 43 Palestinians were killed when Israel bombed displaced people in the Khalil Awida School in Beit Hanoun, while another 42 were killed in an attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp, while the Bureij camp saw the Al-Qurenaoui family targeted.
Mayors Targeted
He said Israel’s bombing of the Deir Al-Balah municipality, which killed the Mayor, Dr Diab Al-Jaru, and eleven other people, indicates that Israel was trying to create an administrative and governmental vacuum in Gaza. Four mayors have been killed in Gaza since October last year.
The total number of personnel in the humanitarian aid sector killed by Israel has risen to 722, he said, stressing that the occupation army continues to target medical teams and hospitals, particularly Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Mayor of Deir Al-Balah Killed in Israeli Airstrikes across Gaza
Israel, Allies ‘Responsible’
Thawabteh warned that Israel continues to pursue a systematic starvation policy against over 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, MEMO reported, with the blockade on the entry of food and medicines into the enclave, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.
Price of Freedom: Why Israel Cannot Push the Reset Button on Its Genocide
Pointing to Israel, the American administration, the United Kingdom, Britain, Germany, and France, he said, “We hold them morally, legally, and historically responsible for their participation in the ongoing genocide, which claimed more than 165,000 victims, including martyrs, missing persons, wounded, and detainees.”
(PC, MEMO)
