About 95 percent of the aid groups have suspended or reduced their services due to Israeli bombing and blockade.
The total siege of Israel and the bombing of the Gaza Strip have left Palestinian children who survive in less than one meal per day, according to an urgent warning of the leaders of 12 main help groups in the enclave.
The humanitarian aid system in Gaza “faces a total collapse” due to 18 months of military operation of Israel and the recent imposition of a complete block last month, the joint statement said Thursday.
It is estimated that 95 percent of the 43 international and Palestinian aid groups have already suspended or cut their services in Gaza, in the midst of “generalized and indistriminated bombings, which makes it extremely dangerous to move,” he added.
“Children are eating less than one meal per day and struggling to find their next meal,” said Bushra Khalil, head of the Oxfam Help Group. “Everyone is eating purely canned food … malnutrition and famine pockets are definitely occurring in Gaza.”
Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator in Gaza for doctors without borders, added that humanitarian workers have been forced to observe people, many of them women and children, suffer and die while carrying “the impossible burden or relief.”
“This is not a humanitarian failure: it is a political choice and a deliberate assault on the ability of a people to survive, carried out with impunity,” he said.
In the city of Gaza, Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera reported Friday that the enclave, running out of baby formula, leaving malnourished children and babies.
“We have seen many cases of severe malnutrition. Families cannot meet their most basic needs, only for the most vulnerable: newborn children and babies. The formula of babies fails largely in markets and pharmacies,” said Mahmoud. “Gaza is running out quickly without needs.”
Outside the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir El-Balah, the Palestinians told Al Jazeera that they are losing their children for malnutrition.
Fadi Ahmed, who lost his son, said the hospital staff discovered “massive infections in the child’s lungs, which led to a serious lack of oxygen in the blood.”
“The weakness of the child and the severe malnutrition led to their inability to resist and then to his death … after spending a week in the hospital.”
Intisar Hamdan, a grandmother, said she lost her grandson because her parents could not find milk for three days.
“Children suffer not only malnutrition, but also medical complications and serious diseases that cannot be easily treated and require medical supplies that are scarce,” Tareq Abu Azzoum of Al Jazeera reported.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 60,000 children are considered malnourished in the Palestinian territory.
The help groups said that Gaza has the history of being “the most deadly of the land for humanitarian workers”, which makes it difficult to provide services to children.
Since October 2023, more than 400 humanitarian workers and 1,300 health workers have been killed in Gaza, despite the requirement under the international humanitarian law so that humanitarian and health workers are protected.
“The recent murder of Palestinian 15 paramedics and rescue, whose bodies were found buried in a massive tomb, triggered global outrage, but many violations and attacks were not reported,” he added.
Help groups are asking Israel and the Palestinian armed group to guarantee the safety of their staff and that allows “safe access and no help restrictions and gaza”, and that world leaders oppose the Furt restrictions.