A displaced health worker in Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, warned that thousands of children may die of hunger if strict Israeli restrictions on the entry of food, fuel, water and medicine into the Strip continue.
“In Rafah, the nutrients that can keep us alive can be provided, but with difficulty… and at great costs,” Muhammad Hamouda, a father of three children, said in a voice message on Wednesday.
“But the children are not starving like our friends and relatives in northern Gaza. In northern Gaza, the situation is very bad. There is no food, no clean water, and no electricity.”
At least 20 people – including newborns – have died of starvation in northern Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. The actual number may be higher, as limited access to the area has hampered the ability of relief agencies to fully assess the situation there.
“Many children…suffer from starvation and many of them die because there is no food or milk,” Hamouda said, adding that mothers are unable to breastfeed because they cannot feed themselves.
He told CNN that his friend, the doctor at Al Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, is unable to treat the wounded because he is exhausted from hunger.
He added: “If the situation remains like this, in the next week or two, I think many thousands of children will die, and many thousands of elderly people and pregnant women will die.”
