Since the turn of the year up to and including May 31, a total of 16,736 children, on average 112 children per day, have been cared for for malnutrition.
"All of these cases could have been avoided. The food, water, and nutritional treatments that they are in desperate need of have been blocked from reaching them. Decisions made by people and that cost lives. Israel must immediately allow large-scale deliveries of life-saving aid to be let through all border crossings”, says Edouard Beigbeder, regional director for Unicef, in a statement.
Unicef warns that the number of cases of acute malnutrition will continue to increase and reach new record levels in the coming weeks, provided that the situation does not change radically.
Israel introduced a total blockade on March 2 against the already heavily affected Gaza Strip, which meant that no supplies were allowed in. It was not until eleven weeks later that the blockade was partially lifted.
