The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Gaza: Children are starving amid persistent aid access obstacles, warn UN aid agencies
Far too little aid is reaching people in Gaza to the extent that children are now starving, UN humanitarians said on Friday, in a renewed appeal to Israel to respect international law regarding the safe passage of lifesaving relief in the war-shattered enclave.
The alert from the World Health Organization (WHO) follows the finding that more than four in five children “did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days” ahead of a food insecurity survey.
“These are children under five who are not getting food all day,” said WHO spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris. “So, you ask, ‘Are the supplies getting through?’ No, children are starving.”
Additional worrying data from the food insecurity snapshot survey indicated that almost all of the youngsters surveyed in Gaza now eat just two different food groups per day, when the WHO recommendation is at least five.
According to an update this week from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, since mid-January, more than 93,400 children under five have been screened for malnutrition in Gaza; 7,280 were found to have acute malnutrition including 5,604 with moderate acute malnutrition and 1,676 with severe acute malnutrition.
Echoing those concerns, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) highlighted the risk of deadly malnutrition and famine among Gaza’s most vulnerable individuals. “I would say they are certainly not getting the amount that they desperately need to prevent a famine, to prevent all kind of horrors that we see. It’s very, very little that is going around at the moment,” said OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke.
“We continue to insist that Israeli authorities’ obligation under the law to facilitate delivery of aid does not stop at the border, it does not stop when you drop off just a few metres across the border and then drive away and then leave it to humanitarians to drive through active combat zones - which they cannot do - to pick it up. So to answer your question, no, the aid that is getting in, is not getting to the people.”
Amid ongoing reports of deadly Israeli bombardment across Gaza on Friday, humanitarians continued to stress that land crossings for aid convoys remain “the only way to get (aid) in at scale and at speed…We need more of these land crossings and we need them open and we need them safe for use to pick up the aid when it’s dropped off,” the OCHA spokesperson said.
Asked about the US military-built floating dock moored off Gaza’s coastline that has reportedly partially broken up in high seas, Mr. Laerke noted that “any and all ways of getting aid in is welcome, so when that reality is not working, that’s of course bad news…It was never realistic to be a major or the major pipeline of aid in. It could have been an addition and we keep emphasising that.”
As part of its ongoing efforts to prevent life-threatening hunger in Gaza, the WHO reported that alongside partners and the local health authority, it continues to offer stabilization services for children suffering from the most life-threatening form of malnutrition. To date, 68 children have received treatment, it said, but owing to the recent escalation of hostilities, the nutrition stabilization centre in Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza is out of service.
Since 1 May, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and partners reported that they had reached around 60,000 children under the age of five and 22,820 pregnant and breastfeeding women with 15 days’ worth of nutrient supplements to help stave off malnutrition.
ends
STORY: Gaza emergency update – OCHA, WHO
TRT: 2’57”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 31 MAY 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1. Exterior medium-wide, UN Geneva flag alley.
2. Wide, Press room podium speakers.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr Margaret Harris, WHO spokesperson: “They’re 95 per cent of children aged six to 23 months – so that’s basically the under-fives – are eating two or less different food groups per day. But the thing that I find most shocking is that 85 per cent of children did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days before the survey.”
4. Medium-wide from elevated camera of podium speakers and journalists.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr Margaret Harris, WHO spokesperson: “This was a snapshot survey, they went around and asked, and these are children under five who are not getting food all day; and that was in the last three days before the survey. So, you ask, ‘Are the supplies getting through?’ No, children are starving.”
6. Medium from elevated camera of podium speakers and journalists.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “We continue to insist that Israeli authorities’ obligation under the law to facilitate delivery of aid does not stop at the border, it does not stop when you drop off just a few metres across the border and then drive away and then leave it to humanitarians to drive through active combat zones - which they cannot do - to pick it up. So to answer your question, no, the aid that is getting in, is not getting to the people.”
8. Medium from elevated camera of podium speakers and journalists.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “I would say they are certainly not getting the amount that they desperately need to prevent a famine, to prevent all kind of horrors that we see. It’s very, very little that is going around at the moment.”
10. Medium: journalists seated.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “As you know, it’s not a UN operation per se, but of course we have also said that any and all ways of getting aid in is welcome, so when that reality is not working, that’s of course bad news. That goes without saying.”
12. Medium, large TV screens mounted on walls of Press room, control room and journalists.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): “It was never, I think, intended and it was never realistic to be a major or the major pipeline of aid in. It could have been an addition and we keep emphasising that. The only way to get in at scale and at speed is land crossings and that’s where we have these problems and we need more of these land crossings and we need them open and we need them safe for use to pick up the aid when it’s dropped off.”
14. Wide, journalists seated, working on laptops or checking mobile phones.
15. Medium, journalist listening with conference hearing aid.
16. Medium, TV video camera operators.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | UNITED NATIONS
United Nations agencies staff demonstrate on Place des Nations in Geneva, to denounce their colleagues killed in Gaza since October 2023
1
1
1
Edited News | WMO
The world’s water resources face growing pressure from climate change while emergencies related to the vital resource are increasingly impacting lives and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk addressed the Human Rights Council during a meeting on the Israeli strike on negotiators in Qatar on Tuesday. “Israel’s strike on negotiators in Doha on 9 September was a shocking breach of international law, an assault on regional peace and stability, and a blow against the integrity of mediation and negotiating processes around the world,” he said.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Gaza: Thirsty and starving, war-battered families face ‘inhumane’ evacuation
As bombs continue to fall on Gaza City as part of the intensifying Israeli military operation, families with starving children are being pushed southwards from one “hellscape” to another, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
New UN Human Rights report finds 10 years of increased suffering repression and fear
The UN Human Rights Office on Friday published a report on the human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) since 2014.
1
1
2
Edited News | UNICEF , UNHCR
The ongoing humanitarian response to the devastating Afghanistan earthquake disaster continued on Friday, although essential services have been cut for operational reasons following reinforced Taliban restrictions on women working with the UN, the global body said.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Un nouveau rapport du Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies aux droits de l'homme sur la République démocratique du Congo évoque le spectre de crimes de guerre et de crimes contre l'humanité dans le Nord et le Sud-Kivu.,
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | HRC
A high-level independent rights probe into the Sudan crisis on Tuesday condemned the many grave crimes committed against civilians by all parties to the war, citing disturbing evidence indicating that they had been “deliberately targeted, displaced and starved”.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Ukraine: ‘Relentless’ attacks rattle health system as winter approaches: WHO
Ambulances attacked, chronically ill patients lacking care and no peace in sight: for millions of Ukrainians, the run-up to another winter of war is just the latest life-or-death challenge they face, the UN health agency (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday delivered his report on Sri Lanka to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday delivered his global update to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
A UN report on the Democratic Republic of Congo raises specter of war crimes and crimes against humanity in North and South Kivu, according to UN Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.