GENEVA: Hard won progress against malnutrition in Gaza could slip away unless commercial supplies resume flowing into the devastated Palestinian territory, the UN children’s agency UNICEF warned on Friday.
Israel said this week that commercial goods had stopped entering Gaza because of a tax dispute between local merchants and Hamas. For a population largely dependent on aid after years of war, displacement and tight restrictions on deliveries, the halt has severed a crucial source of food and essentials, reported by Arab News.
Although the ceasefire has improved humanitarian access and reduced major fighting, aid agencies say continued strikes, displacement and vast destruction have left civilians dangerously exposed.
“The impact on children obviously will be felt if this situation is not resolved,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires told reporters in Geneva. “We can’t go back to a situation where children and families are not getting all the supplies, goods and services that they require.”
A new UNICEF report, published on Friday, found that the ceasefire had allowed more aid and commercial goods to enter Gaza, helping to ease the threat of famine confirmed by a global food-security monitor in August last year. But it cautioned that the gains remain fragile.
Acute malnutrition rates have fallen, yet only one in three children under two receives the minimum dietary diversity needed for healthy growth. A UNICEF survey in June also found chronic malnutrition in one in eight children under five, a slower form of deprivation that can damage children’s development for years.
The agency urged that all crossings into Gaza remain open and that supplies move predictably and continuously. It also called for better living conditions for the enclave’s roughly 800,000 displaced children, most of whom are living in tents or unsafe buildings as winter approaches.
Without shelter, basic services and a steady flow of food, UNICEF said, the progress made since the ceasefire could prove temporary.
