GENEVA: More than 10,000 children need treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza City, where the Israeli army launched a major ground offensive on Tuesday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported.
“The forced and massive displacement of families from Gaza City is a deadly threat to the most vulnerable,” said Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokeswoman in southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi zone.
Speaking to journalists at a televised UN press briefing in Geneva, Ingram warned of worsening rates of child malnutrition.
“We estimate that 26,000 children in the Gaza Strip currently require treatment for acute malnutrition, including more than 10,000 in Gaza City alone,” she said.
She explained that in August, more than one in eight children examined in the Gaza Strip suffered from acute malnutrition, “the highest level ever recorded.”
In Gaza City, that figure was one in five.
Nutrition centers in Gaza City have been “forced to shut this week due to evacuation orders and the military escalation,” Ingram added.
The Israeli army claims those evacuating southward to the Al-Masawi area will find food, tents, and medicine.
However, nearly two years into the war, Israel has frequently bombed so-called “humanitarian zones” in the Gaza Strip, claiming to target Hamas fighters there.
“It is inhumane to expect nearly half a million children, battered and traumatized by over 700 days of unrelenting conflict, to flee one hellscape to end up in another,” Ingram noted.
About 40 percent of the population of Gaza City and surrounding areas, estimated at one million by the UN, has been displaced, according to an Israeli military official.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the various parties.
Around 150,000 people have fled Gaza City to the south since August 14, Ingram said.
According to UNICEF’s team on the ground, people are still moving “inside and around” Gaza City, unable to seek refuge elsewhere.
The October 2023 attack by Hamas militants resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 64,964 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
UN says over 10,000 children with acute malnutrition in Gaza City
https://arab.news/n4p6y
UN says over 10,000 children with acute malnutrition in Gaza City
- Israel has frequently bombed so-called “humanitarian zones” in Gaza, claiming to target Hamas fighters there
- Around 150,000 people have fled Gaza City to the south since August 14, a UNICEF spokeswoman said
Helicopter crashes in Libya during medical evacuation, killing 3
- The Matan Al-Sarra air base lies in an area under the control of Libya’s Benghazi-based eastern administration led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, but authorities in the east did not comment on the crash
TRIPOLI: A helicopter has crashed in southeastern Libya, killing a medic and two crew members carrying out a medical evacuation, state media said Tuesday.
Libyan news agency LANA said the chopper went down overnight near an air base in the Kufra region about 60 kilometers north of the border between Libya and Chad.
The aircraft was attempting to evacuate a soldier who had been involved in a road accident in the desert, LANA said.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known and it was unclear what happened to the injured soldier.
Libyan media reports said two foreign nationals were among those on board who were killed, but this was not confirmed by authorities.
The Matan Al-Sarra air base lies in an area under the control of Libya’s Benghazi-based eastern administration led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, but authorities in the east did not comment on the crash.
Libya remains split between the eastern administration and a UN-backed government in the west led by Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah. The LANA news agency is under the control of western authorities.
Libya has struggled to recover from chaos that erupted following a 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi.
