The lives of minors are increasingly in danger due to preventable diseases and the lack of food and water, the high representative warned in a statement.
Diarrhea cases in children under five years old increased from 48,000 to 71,000 in just one week starting December 17, which is equivalent to 3,200 new cases per day, UNICEF added.
This significant increase indicates that children’s health in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly, the text added, since before the escalation the average number of cases of diarrhea in children under five years of age was barely two thousand per month.
For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated this Friday at more than 600 attacks that impacted hospitals and other vital medical infrastructure in the enclave since October 7.
Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the agency, stated that the fatalities from these attacks exceed 600 while more than 770 have been injured.
“The reduction of humanitarian space and attacks on health care are taking the population of Gaza to an extreme situation,” lamented the spokesperson.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) insisted today on the obstacles faced by the delivery of humanitarian aid in terms of speed and delivery.
“The operational environment and response capacity continue to be hampered by security risks, mobility limitations, delays and denials,” said Eri Kaneko, OCHA representative.
Inside Gaza, aid operations face constant shelling, in which aid workers have been killed and some convoys have been shot at, Kaneko noted.
The crisis that began in October claimed the lives of 142 support staff due to Israeli attacks, according to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (Unrwa).
Nearly 1.9 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some of them multiple times, representing more than 85 percent of Gaza’s population.
In addition, 1.4 million internally displaced people are now taking refuge in 155 UNRWA facilities in the five provinces of the Strip, 160 thousand of them in the north and in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, another 500,000 people find refuge in the vicinity of these facilities and receive assistance from UNRWA, considered a fundamental actor in facing the harsh living conditions of civilians.
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