GAZA, (PIC)
High levels of acute malnutrition and food shortage in the Gaza Strip have led to more deaths of children and newborns, according to medical sources.
Another child died on Saturday as a result of malnutrition and the lack of appropriate health care at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, raising the total this week to four children, amid ongoing Israeli restrictions on entry of aid, a doctor at the hospital said.
“We have lost a child in the hospital’s nursery department in recent hours due to malnutrition,” Husam Abu Safiya, director of the hospital, told a news conference on Saturday.
Abu Safiya said that over the past two weeks, the hospital had diagnosed over 250 children with malnutrition symptoms, warning that the Gaza Strip “is facing a real health catastrophe that has started to affect children and may worsen to include adults.”
Abu Safiya urged international organizations to intensify relief efforts in northern Gaza, and work on providing Gaza with food, clean water, fuel, and essential equipment for waste disposal.
The Kamal Adwan Hospital has only fuel for one day to operate power generators and may stop providing its services completely, according to its director.
