400 people in Gaza have died of malnutrition since start of the year, WHO says

The World Health Organisation says 400 people in Gaza have died from malnutrition so far this year. That figure includes 101 children,  of whom 80 were under five years old.

Dr Rana Abu Zaatir is Head of the Department of Therapeutic Nutrition at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza: 

“Large numbers of patients are coming to us from the southern Gaza Strip and from the southern areas. In addition to the increase in the number of cases, among children under five years old, we have started to face new numbers and new cases in those over five years old. As a result, we have begun to receive cases of severe malnutrition with medical complications from five to twelve years old. We also have recently begun to receive cases from the age of two months to six months.”

Currently, there are just four malnutrition stabilisation centers in Gaza that remain operational. Northern Gaza has also been cut off from food aid for weeks, leaving the nutrition response facing critical shortages of therapeutic foods.

“There are large numbers of children and adults who have died due to malnutrition and its complications," says Dr Zaatir. "Unfortunately, in the coming days and even in the coming period, if the crossings remain closed in this way and the prices of basic commodities continue to rise in this way, we will face a real disaster in the Gaza Strip due to malnutrition and the lack of sufficient food resources for a normal life for these people.”

On Monday the World Food Program (WFP) said humanitarian access was improving across Gaza but said access to the north must be swiftly reinstated. The WFP stressed that a ceasefire is needed to get enough food aid to the most vulnerable.

Some 500,000 people in Gaza City area have already been classified as being in famine, according to United Nations-backed experts.