UN says over 10,000 children with acute malnutrition in Gaza City

More than 10,000 children need treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza City, where the Israeli army launched a major ground offensive today, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports.

“The forced and massive displacement of families from Gaza City is a deadly threat to the most vulnerable,” says Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokeswoman in southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.

Speaking to journalists at a televised UN press briefing in Geneva, Ingram warns of worsening rates of child malnutrition.

“We estimate that 26,000 children in the Gaza Strip currently require treatment for acute malnutrition, including more than 10,000 in Gaza City alone,” she says.

She explained that in August, more than one in eight children examined in the Gaza Strip suffered from acute malnutrition, “the highest level ever recorded.”

In Gaza City, that figure was one in five.

Nutrition centers in Gaza City have been “forced to shut this week due to evacuation orders and the military escalation”, Ingram adds.

Israel disputes claims of hunger in the Strip and the IDF says that those evacuating southward to the Al-Masawi area will find food, tents, and medicine.

Israel continues to call on the civilian population of Gaza City to leave for the safe zone and estimates some 40% of the 1 million population has moved so far. However, UN officials put that number at about 150,000.