Malnutrition claims children’s lives in Gaza
Malnutrition and lack of necessary medication claimed the life of Palestinian child Mostafa Hejazy yesterday, June 14, in Deir al-Balah’s Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in central Gaza. With his passing, malnutrition fatalities in the strip reached 40, most of them children who were literally starved to death, as reported by the Palestinian News and Information Agency Wafa.
An estimated 50,000 children in the Gaza Strip require treatment for severe malnutrition, according to the UN Secretary General’s June 11 remarks made in a conference calling for an urgent humanitarian response for Gaza. Starvation is not limited to the famine-stricken north, however, as scores of children in central and southern Gaza also suffer from severe malnutrition, as noted by UNICEF. Israeli authorities' control of Gaza's borders and limiting of humanitarian aid entry has resulted in shortages of foodstuffs, healthy sources of nutrition and the specialty baby formula required in medical cases.
The pediatric department of Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is currently treating 85 displaced children for malnutrition. They are accompanied by their caretakers in a treatment facility with limited resources and a capacity of only 30 beds. Many suffer complications, including anemia, stunted growth and compromised immunity, which affect their physical and mental development. Such cases require rapid and intense intervention to provide much-needed nutrition, clean water and specialized healthcare. Yet the department lacks intensive care units, which places children's lives at risk.
This Panorama edition takes us inside the pediatric department of Deir al-Balah’s Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where children are being treated for malnutrition.
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