Malnutrition-related death of 23 children in Gaza just ‘tip of iceberg’: UNICEF

GENEVA (AA) – The “painful and slow death” of 23 children in the north of Gaza due to malnutrition and dehydration “would be the tip of the iceberg” as only those who reached hospitals are reported, UNICEF’s deputy executive director has said.

Ted Chaiban’s remarks came during a panel on the humanitarian situation in Gaza under the two-day European Humanitarian Forum 2024 in Brussels.

Chaiban stressed that one in every three children in Gaza’s north is acutely malnourished.

“There needs to be faster inspections at both Rafah and Kerem Shalom so that the population can get the support it needs,” he said and added: “This is a deliberate squeezing of humanitarian space.”

Regarding the alternative aid routes, he said that every route should be used, adding: “But the bottom line is the first shipment that came in by sea will be able to be the equivalent of 12 to 13 trucks. There are hundreds of trucks waiting on the border in Egypt as we speak.”

About possible evacuation scenarios, Belgian Development Cooperation Minister Caroline Gennez warned that evacuating “too many people” can cause other serious problems.

“We have to prevent genocide, we have to make sure that we prevent ethnic cleansing, we have to make sure that we prevent resettlement,” Gennez said and added: “So we should also be very careful on evacuating too many people because it might be the purpose of what Israeli government wants or some settler movements certainly want.”

“We have to make sure that we don’t play a cynical game that serves the agenda of the settler movements,” she stressed.

Faris Arouri, director of the Association of International Development Agencies, said that without a full and permanent cease-fire, any presence on the ground would be “inadequate,” adding: “We cannot feed people so that they can die on a full stomach.”