After a global outcry at Israel severely restricting aid from March, its military began allowing more food into Gaza in late July.
According to figures from Gaza's Health Ministry, verified by the World Health Organisation, deaths from malnutrition and starvation are spiking.
“We are seeing the worst possible humanitarian catastrophe that we can even measure,“ said Jeanette Bailey, a child nutrition lead at the International Rescue Committee, a New York-based aid organisation.
Israel does not accept there is widespread malnutrition among Palestinians in Gaza and disputes the hunger fatality figures given by the health ministry of Gaza's Hamas-run government, arguing that the deaths were due to other medical causes.
At Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, doctor Ahmed Basal held up an infant, arms stick thin and wizened from wasting. He said normal formula, even when available, cost up to $58 per carton, while mothers were themselves too malnourished to breastfeed.
“There was no milk. I used natural herbs and tried everything because there was no milk substitute,“ she said.
“Without consistent entry and distribution of items like specialised supplementary feeding items - high energy biscuits and fortified foods - we are watching a preventable crisis turn into a widespread nutrition emergency,“ said Antoine Renard, Palestine country director of the World Food Programme.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency responsible for aid, said in an August 12 media statement that most deaths attributed to malnutrition by Palestinian health authorities were caused by other medical conditions.
Israel has recognised shortages of food, but blames the United Nations for failing to effectively distribute supplies and Hamas for stealing it, which the groups denies. An official Israeli review found “no signs of a widespread malnutrition phenomenon among the population in Gaza”, COGAT said.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza media office said the government believed famine conditions were “more grave” than reported. “Hamas is keen more than anyone else for aid to flow into Gaza and to reach our people,“ he said. The United Nations human rights office in June accused Israel of “weaponising” food for civilians, calling it a war crime, after documenting hundreds of people killed by the Israeli military as they tried to reach aid distribution sites by run Israel- and U.S.-backed organisation the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Two kilo baby
Aqra is still breastfeeding, but with very little food herself she is not producing enough milk and there is none to buy, she said. Aqra said she sometimes goes one or two days with nothing to eat but a single bowl of soup.
Reuters could not independently confirm the details of Aqra's account. It is consistent with reports by aid agencies and the United Nations of the hunger crisis and how it affects breastfeeding mothers and their infants.
Despite the increase in aid and commercial food supplies entering Gaza, there is still very little available in the market or in the charitable community kitchen where the family seeks food daily, Aqra said.
When malnourished people do not get supplements that they can take at home alongside an adequate amount of normal nutritious food, their condition starts to deteriorate, said Mariana Adrianopoli, a nutrition lead for the WHO.
“The deterioration of health conditions in a malnourished population can be very fast,“ she said.
Tipping point
Those figures only represent children who showed up at clinics or hospitals, so the true number is likely much higher, all the agencies and hunger experts Reuters spoke to said.
UNICEF said its stocks of the small packs of the nutritious pastes have either run out or nearly run out, with only enough for 5,000 children for the next month, the agency told Reuters on Tuesday. Last month, Reuters reported Gaza would also run out of another specialised therapeutic food needed to save children already suffering the severe malnutrition that causes wasting by mid-August if nothing changed.
What's getting in?
Israel ended a ceasefire in March and imposed a near total blockade on aid entering Gaza until late May, when the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing food boxes at four places in the enclave.
GHF and Samaritan's Purse did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.
Commercial supplies have also started entering Gaza - a step seen as crucial to increasing overall food amounts and preventing a sharper slip towards widespread malnutrition by providing fresh produce and richer foods like eggs, dairy and meat. But few people can afford to buy.
“The overall volume of nutrition supplies remains completely insufficient to prevent further deterioration. The market needs to be flooded. There needs to be dietary diversity,“ said Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organisation representative for Palestine.-REUTERS
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