A rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip poses grave threats to their health, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Monday.
"As the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip enters its 20th week, food and safe water have become incredibly scarce and diseases are rife, compromising women and children's nutrition and immunity and resulting in a surge of acute malnutrition," it said in a statement.
The situation is "especially serious" in the north, where one in six children under the age of two is acutely malnourished, it added.
Similar screenings in southern Gaza in Rafah, where aid has been more available, found 5% of children under two years old are acutely malnourished, it said.
"This is clear evidence that access to humanitarian aid is needed and can help prevent the worst outcomes. It also reinforces agencies' calls to protect Rafah from the threat of intensified military operations."
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations Ted Chaiban said the Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza.
"We've been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis.
"If the conflict doesn't end now, children's nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences," Chaiban was quoted as saying in the statement.
Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed nearly 29,092 people and injured around 69,028 with mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
