Erin Conroy
Palestinian "children are being starved at the fastest rate the world has ever seen."
"This is the fastest decline in a population's nutrition status ever recorded.
@melanie_ward speaks with @IsaCNN about the catastrophic levels of hunger that Israel's blockade is causing in #Gaza
Erin Conroy
Now, think about the fact that everything you just read is a month old. It's now the last day of Feb.The diarrhea has gotten worse. The starvation has gotten worse. The disease is getting worse.
As of Jan, "Israel’s strikes...killed at least 26,637 people & injured 65,387 others."
In February, Israel killed nearly 4000 more people in Gaza, the bulk women & children.
In 5 months, Israel has killed or injured 1 in 23 Gazans. That ratio applied in Israel would be 400K dead or injured Israelis.
Erin Conroy
"Meanwhile, Israel’s military offensive has razed at least 22% of Gaza’s agricultural land, according to OCHA. Livestock are starving and fresh produce is hard to come by."
Erin Conroy
"The Israeli military in January only granted access to a quarter of aid missions planned by humanitarian agencies to Gaza, OCHA said on January 21. CNN reached out to COGAT for comment on OCHA’s statistics and did not get a reply."
Erin Conroy
"Shadi Bleha, 20, is trying to feed a family of six. Twice a week, they receive two water bottles, three biscuits and “sometimes” two cans of food from UNRWA, he said."
Erin Conroy
"In times of severe stress, pregnant women are more likely to miscarry or give birth prematurely, health workers previously told CNN. Gaza is home to 50,000 pregnant women, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Babies who do survive in utero are more likely to be born underweight and are therefore at higher risk of dying, Inglis said. Starving and dehydrated mothers cannot provide enough breast milk for their babies."
Erin Conroy
"Hamouda said his own children have diarrhea, cold and flu symptoms. “The children’s bodies are dehydrated … their skin is dehydrated.”
Erin Conroy
"Malnourished children have an 11-fold increased risk of dying...Vitamin & mineral deficiencies force the body into an “emergency shut-down state” where it loses the ability to make energy, put on weight, or maintain kidney & liver functions."
These children are also "at greater risk of dying from illnesses like diarrhea and pneumonia."
"Cases of diarrhea in children under age five have increased about 2,000% [in #Gaza] since October 7, UNICEF said."
Erin Conroy
"All 350,000 children under the age of five in Gaza are especially vulnerable to severe malnutrition, UNICEF reported last month."
The “scale and speed” of potential famine in Gaza will consign child survivors to a lifetime of health risks, said Rebecca Inglis, an intensive care doctor in Britain who regularly visits Gaza to teach medical students.
The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are “absolutely critical” for physical growth & cognitive development, Inglis told CNN."
Erin Conroy
Al-Naizi fled south w/"40 people under his care [mostly] children & infants living with disabilities.
Hamouda...used to feed his children – aged 6, 4 & 2 – a mixture of fruits & vegetables, biscuits, fresh juices, meat & seafood. This year, he said, the family has barely eaten one meal a day...
“Children are being violent towards each other to get food & water...I can’t stop my tears from falling when I talk about these things, because it’s very hurtful seeing your kids & other kids hungry.”
Erin Conroy
"parents in Rafah, where OCHA reported more than 1.3 million residents of Gaza have been forced to flee, say the stress of being unable to protect their children from bombardment is compounded by their inability to provide enough food....Living conditions are overcrowded & unsanitary.
“People are forced to cut down trees to get firewood for heating & preparing food. Smoke is everywhere & flies spread widely & transmit diseases,” said Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi...director of an orphanage in Gaza City"
Erin Conroy
"Gihan El Baz [tries to comfort] her children & grandchildren, who she says wake each day “screaming” for food.
“In the shelters, there is not enough food, the sun sets on us, & we haven’t even had any lunch,” El Baz, who lives with 10 relatives inside a weather-worn tent in Rafah, told CNN. She nurses her husband, who...fell & broke his arm while dizzy from exhaustion.
“There are no drinks, no clean water, no clean bathrooms, the kid cries for a biscuit & we can’t even find any to give her.”
Erin Conroy
"Communication blackouts stifle efforts to report on starvation and dehydration in the region.
...
several Western countries have suspended funding to the main UN agency in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)...
[Jordan, a US ally, pleaded with Western nations:] UNRWA was a “lifeline” for more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza & that the agency shouldn’t be “collectively punished” over allegations against a dozen of its 13,000 staff
Erin Conroy
"Mohammed Hamouda, a physical therapist displaced to Rafah, remembers the day his colleague, Odeh Al-Haw, was killed trying to get water for his family."
Al-Haw was queueing at a water station in Jabalya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, when he and dozens of others were struck by Israeli bombardment, Hamouda said.
“Unfortunately, many relatives and friends are still in the northern Gaza Strip, suffering a lot,” Hamouda, a father-of-three, told CNN. “They eat grass and drink polluted water.”
Erin Conroy
Israel's siege since October 7 has forced the entire 2.2 million into certain starvation.
"Martin Griffiths, the UN’s emergency relief chief, told CNN the “great majority” of 400,000 Gazans characterized by UN agencies as at risk of starving “are actually in famine.”
UN human rights experts have warned “Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system & using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people.”
Erin Conroy
"Children living on the streets, after being forced from their homes by Israel’s bombardment, cry and fight over stale bread. Others reportedly walk for hours in the cold searching for food, risking exposure to Israeli strikes.
Even before the war, two out of three people in Gaza relied on food support, Arif Husain, the chief economist at the World Food Programme (WFP), told CNN. Palestinians have lived through 17 years of partial blockade imposed by Israel..."
Erin Conroy
“They are weak now, they always have diarrhea, their faces are yellow,” El Jamara, whose family was displaced from northern Gaza, told CNN on January 9. “My 17-year-old daughter tells me she feels dizziness, my husband is not eating.”
"displaced civilians and health workers told CNN they go hungry so their children can eat what little is available. If Palestinians find water, it is likely undrinkable. When relief trucks trickle into the strip, people clamber over each other to grab aid."
Erin Conroy
Hanadi Gamal Saed El Jamara, 38, says sleep is all that can distract her children from the aching hunger gnawing at their bellies.
These days, the mother-of-seven finds herself begging for food on the mud-caked streets of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
She tries to feed her kids at least once a day, she says, while tending to her husband, a cancer and diabetes patient.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/middleeast/famine-looms-in-gaza-israel-war-intl/index.html
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