At least 20 people died from malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza, according to the enclave's Health Ministry. The Hamas-run body said most of the dead were children. For several months, international and non-governmental organizations have been warning about the ravages of malnutrition in a Palestinian population deprived of access to health care. Jean-Raphaël Poitou, Action Against Hunger's Middle East director, is concerned about a sharp rise in the number of deaths if a ceasefire agreement is not quickly reached between Israel and the Islamist movement. Interview.
Famine is becoming a real threat for the inhabitants of Gaza, exhausted by five months of war. At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday, March 6.
Representatives of the World Health Organization, WHO, visited hospitals in the north of the enclave in recent days for the first time since the conflict broke out in October 2023. The workers found “serious levels of malnutrition, children dying of hunger, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, and hospital buildings destroyed,” confirmed WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The United Nations defines famine as “a situation in which a substantial proportion of the population of a country or region is unable to access adequate food, leading to widespread acute malnutrition and loss of life from starvation and disease.” “.
The agency warns that famine is “almost inevitable” for Gaza's 2.2 million inhabitants.
According to a report published in February by the Global Nutrition Group, a network of NGOs led by UNICEF, 90% of children aged 6 to 23 months, as well as pregnant and lactating women, face serious food poverty throughout the territory.
Aid organizations on the ground blame Israel for preventing needed food trucks from entering the enclave.
Grim findings during @QUIEN visits to Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern #Loop: severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed.
The visits over the weekend were the first… pic.twitter.com/CxaCuau7iR
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 4, 2024
President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the US military to open a temporary relief port off the coast of Gaza. On Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a maritime aid corridor between Cyprus and Gaza could open this weekend.
FRANCE 24 spoke with Jean-Raphaël Poitou, regional director of Action Against Hunger in the Middle East, who assured that the Palestinians in northern Gaza “have nothing to eat.”
The official said that if aid remains as limited as it is now, the number of deaths related to food poverty in the enclave “could increase dramatically” in the coming weeks.
Are we talking about constant famine in Gaza or a risk of famine?
Jean-Raphaël Poitou: We are starting to see people, especially children, die from malnutrition. So yes, we are talking about famine, or at least an extremely advanced risk of famine. To determine whether famine is occurring, the UN relies on the criteria given by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, CIP. The CIP is a standardized system developed by FAO and other international organizations to classify and communicate the level of famine or food security in a given context.
A report published in December already warned of extremely advanced risks in several areas of Gaza. On a scale of five levels of food insecurity, we reach level three or crisis level. Given that there is still a lack of help, it is normal that three months later, the classification has risen to levels four or five, emergency and famine, respectively, which represents the maximum alert threshold.
Children are particularly vulnerable because their immune systems are not yet fully developed, so their bodies cannot defend themselves the way adult bodies can.
All the elements that accelerate severe malnutrition must also be taken into account, such as lack of drinking water, poor sanitary conditions, respiratory problems and completely destroyed access to medical care.
Malnutrition has long-term effects on children, especially their brains. That is why children under five years old have priority, since their brains are not yet fully developed.
Northern Gaza, one of the areas most affected by malnutrition. What do you have left to eat?
Jean-Raphaël Poitou: They have nothing left to eat. When we talk to colleagues on the ground they say that Gazans eat anything, even grass or leaves. Dozens of UN missions have tried to enter the north of the enclave but, according to the latest figures, the Israeli army has only accepted 20 percent of the 77 requests.
Food is unaffordable in Rafah, southern Gaza. The aid is not enough and little has improved in that regard. The attacks on aid convoys show that people are completely desperate to find the food they need to survive.
It complicates our work in the field. We can't put our teams at risk, so we have to work on a much smaller scale with the communities we know well. Our aid distributions usually include chickpeas, oil or flour, as bread is a staple food. We also used to distribute vegetables when crops were still available in the fields.
When people think of famine, they often conjure up terrible images of emaciated children in Somalia in the early 1990s. Is this something we could see in Gaza?
Jean-Raphaël Poitou: It is true that it is not common to see these types of images in a Middle Eastern context, but that is what is happening in Gaza right now. And we're likely to see more and more of them.
We cannot provide aid on a large scale and we cannot organize distributions without a ceasefire. However, we have solutions and protocols to treat extreme cases of malnutrition such as peanut-based foods, which are very high in calories. They allow children to recover and stop the process of malnutrition.
However, we need access to these populations. If we do nothing, in the meantime, people will starve and the number of victims will begin to rise.
Last weekend, the United States airdropped food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza. Is this a sustainable solution to compensate for the lack of trucks entering the enclave?
Jean-Raphaël Poitou: From our point of view, this is not the method to use. We know from experience that small groups can hijack parachutes and that the method encourages crime. Furthermore, the most vulnerable cannot access that help, only the strongest can collect it. That is why we do not encourage this practice at all. We really need to work at the diplomatic level to open different avenues of access to aid and ensure its correct distribution.
Originally published in French
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