UNICEF Warns Thousands of Infants in Gaza Face Death Amid Starvation Crisis
Thousands of Palestinian infants in the Gaza Strip are not receiving adequate nutrition and are at risk of dying, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Monday, stressing that “every minute counts to save lives.”
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic,” noting that many Palestinian mothers have been martyred in Israeli airstrikes or are unable to breastfeed their babies due to extreme hunger caused by the ongoing blockade imposed by the occupying forces.
She warned that many infants face the risk of death or permanent health complications.
Since March 2, the Zionist occupation has closed Gaza’s border crossings to all humanitarian aid, pushing roughly 2.4 million Palestinians into famine conditions.
Since October 7, 2023, the occupying forces have waged a genocidal war on Gaza, spreading starvation, killing tens of thousands including large numbers of children—destroying infrastructure, and forcibly displacing civilians, in defiance of international appeals and rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to end the atrocities.
The ongoing genocide has resulted in over 194,000 Palestinian casualties both martyrs and injured most of them women and children, with over 11,000 missing and hundreds of thousands forcibly displaced.
