Dehydration, Malnutrition at Gaza Hospitals Kill Six Children

The Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry announced on Wednesday that children have died from dehydration and malnutrition at hospitals in Gaza after food deliveries to the north of the enclave were suspended due to security concerns.

Since December, the United Nations has warned of looming famine in northern Gaza due to severe food shortages. Families, including children, have reportedly gone days without eating.

Children Died From Dehydration, Malnutrition in Gaza

(Photo : MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)
A man reacts as he carries the shrouded body of his child, in front of the morgue of the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir Balah in the central Gaza Strip, following an Israeli strike on October 22, 2023, as battles continue between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group.

On Wednesday, the ministry confirmed that two children died at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Earlier, it said that four children died at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, while seven others were still in critical condition.

Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said as Israel's bombardment on Gaza continues, "We ask international agencies to intervene immediately to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in northern Gaza."

"The international community is facing a moral and humanitarian test to stop the genocide in Gaza," al-Qudra added.

Kamal Adwan Hospital's Director, Ahmed al-Kahlout, stated that the hospital has been forced to close due to a lack of fuel to run its generators. On Tuesday, Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia also went out of service for the same reason.

In a video posted on Instagram and confirmed by Al Jazeera's Sanad verification unit, journalist Ebrahem Musalam shows a baby on a bed in the pediatric section of Kamal Adwan Hospital as power comes in and out.

Musalam claimed that the children in the department are malnourished as there is a lack of infant formula, and necessary devices have stopped functioning because of constant power outages due to fuel shortages.

Furthermore, the Palestinian group Hamas said on Wednesday that the closure of Kamal Adwan Hospital would worsen the health and humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, which is already on the verge of famine as Israel continues to block or disrupt aid missions there.

Qatar, France Launch Joint Humanitarian Aid Initiative for Gaza

On Wednesday, Israel announced that 31 food-carrying trucks entered northern Gaza. According to the Coordination of Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military office that oversees Palestinian civilian affairs, nearly 20 additional trucks entered the north on Monday and Tuesday.

These were the first major aid deliveries in a month to the devastated, isolated area, where the UN has warned of escalating famine.

Qatar and France stressed their opposition to an Israeli military operation on Rafah in southern Gaza in a joint statement on Wednesday. They emphasized their rejection of the killing and starvation suffered by the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

They demanded the opening of all borders into Gaza, including in the north, to allow humanitarian actors to resume their activities and the delivery of food supply and pledged jointly a $200 million effort in support of the Palestinian population.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, also said Israel must allow aid trucks into Gaza to address the grave humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Egeland wrote in a social media post that included a video of a long line of aid trucks that hundreds of aid trucks wait in line to cross into Gaza at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings to a starving civilian population.