Starving Gazan children get food poisoning after eating animal fodder

GAZA (AA) – Starving children in the besieged Gaza Strip are getting poisoned by fodder they have to eat due to food shortage caused by continuous Israeli bombing.

Israel, which has been attacking Gaza from air, land and sea for about five months, does not allow water, food, medicine, fuel and electricity to be delivered to the blockaded Strip. Approximately 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to survive under dire humanitarian conditions.

Israel’s suffocating siege on the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza City has led to a severe scarcity of food and potable water. This aggravates the situation especially in areas where humanitarian aid cannot be delivered due to the siege.

Iman Abu Jalhoum, one of the intensive care unit doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, said they are worried that children will die due to food poisoning and malnutrition.

– Israel’s policy of starvation –

The doctor reported to the media that they are having a very difficult time treating the increasing cases of malnutrition in the north of the Gaza Strip, as a result of which some children are suffering from food poisoning.

He said two children who had to eat animal feed consisting of barley, corn and straw due to hunger, were treated in the hospital for food poisoning. “The occupation administration is systematically implementing a policy of starvation. The health of children, mothers and the elderly who cannot be fed and cannot receive the necessary vitamins, is depreciating.”

Pointing out that women giving birth suffer from nutritional and vitamin deficiencies, which put the health of both mothers and babies at risk, Abu Jalhoum asked: “How long will this hunger and siege continue? How long will the Palestinian people and their children be oppressed?”

– Number of children dying of hunger rising –

At least seven children have died of hunger at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

In a recent statement, the Gaza media office said the number of children dying of hunger in the north of the Gaza Strip and Gaza City, where humanitarian aid could not be delivered due to obstacles erected by Israel, has increased to 15. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians are currently facing the threat of severe hunger.

Pointing out that the level of hunger in the Gaza Strip has increased greatly and 2.4 million people are suffering from serious food shortages, the statement said: “Some countries have worked on providing aid from the air with a few planes. However, as everyone knows, this is not the best way to deliver aid to the people of Gaza,” adding that food aid delivered through air is “useless” as it can end up in areas or zones that are off-limits to Palestinian civilians and cannot be accessed.