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More than 5,100 children treated for malnutrition in Gaza in May: UNICEF
The UN’s child rights agency has warned that childhood malnutrition is rising at at “alarming rate” in the bombarded Palestinian territory, as Israel continues to block most aid from entering Gaza.
UNICEF said that 5,119 children aged between six months and five years old were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition last month alone. That’s a nearly 50 percent increase from the number of child admissions in April.
“In just 150 days, from the start of the year until the end of May, 16,736 children – an average of 112 children a day – have been admitted for treatment for malnutrition in the Gaza Strip,” Edouard Beigbeder, the agency’s Middle East and North Africa director, said in a statement.
“Every one of these cases is preventable. The food, water, and nutrition treatments they desperately need are being blocked from reaching them. Man-made decisions that are costing lives,” he said.
“Israel must urgently allow the large-scale delivery of life-saving aid through all border crossings.”
Palestinian children try to get food at a charity kitchen in central Gaza in May [File: Moiz Salhi/Anadolu]