UNRWA: One in 10 children screened in our medical facilities is malnourished in Gaza

GAZA, July 16 (YPA) – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that one in 10 children screened in its medical facilities is malnourished in the Gaza strip.

“Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March,” UNRWA’s Director of Communications Juliette Touma told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.

UNRWA indicated that it has screened more than 240,000 children under the age of five at its clinics in Gaza since January 2024, adding that before the conflict, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip.

“One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries,” Touma said.

“Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out,” Touma confirmed.

On Monday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced that over 5,800 children in the Gaza Strip were diagnosed with malnutrition during June.

@E.Y.M