Over 20% of Gaza kids malnourished, dehydration increasing as temperatures soar: UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reports that more than 20 percent of children in Gaza are malnourished, with cases of dehydration on the rise amid Israel’s genocidal war and siege.
Referring to a heatwave in Gaza, where temperatures have reached record highs of over 40°C (or 104°F), the UNRWA warned on Friday that “dehydration is increasing because of the very limited water available.
Citing its latest Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC)-based findings, the UN agency said malnutrition has reached 21.5 percent in Gaza City, meaning nearly one in five young children is now acutely malnourished.
MUAC is a widely used anthropometric measure to identify children suffering from acute malnutrition.
UNRWA staff are “exhausted, psychologically strained, and in many cases enduring acute food insecurity themselves,” the agency’s report stated.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, at least one child starved to death in the strip in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths to 240, including 107 children.
The UNRWA said the health response in Gaza continues to face “operational challenges, including extensive damage to health facilities, obstacles to safe movements and restrictions on the entry of medical supplies and fuel.”
The UN agency also warned that the lack of sufficient medical supplies compromises the primary healthcare response, leaving thousands of patients with chronic diseases and those suffering from communicable illnesses without essential life-saving support, thus increasing the risk of a widespread public health crisis.
Israel has launched a genocidal war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian resistance fighters carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the Zionist entity in response to the regime's decades-long campaign of death and destruction against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far martyred nearly 61,827 Palestinians and injured 155,275 others, mostly women and children.
The regime has sealed all border crossings, blocking the entry of aid and further worsening Gaza's already dire humanitarian crisis since March 2, when it violated its ceasefire agreement with Hamas.