Israel demands more evacuations in northern Gaza, where 1 in 6 children are said to be undernourished by the UN

RAFAH: Tuesday saw Israel order more evacuations from certain areas of Gaza City after a study conducted by the U.N. children’s agency revealed that one in six youngsters in the city’s remote and severely damaged northern region suffer from acute malnutrition.

The study documents growing suffering across the region, as over 29,000 Palestinians have been murdered, whole neighborhoods have been destroyed, and over 80% of the population has been displaced by Israel’s air and ground operations, which was initiated in retaliation for Hamas’ strike on October 7.
More than half of the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip have fled to Rafah, the southernmost city, in fear of conflict elsewhere. Israel has pledged to continue the attack there. Near the Egyptian border, a large number of people have crammed into U.N.-run shelters and large tent camps.

The Israeli military claimed that sections of northern Gaza had been cleared weeks ago, but on Tuesday it ordered the evacuation of the Zaytoun and Turkoman districts on the southern outskirts of Gaza City. This suggests that Palestinian militants are still putting up a strong fight in these regions.

Residents said that throughout the previous two days, there had been intense ground combat and airstrikes in Gaza City’s eastern regions. “It’s a very tough situation,” Zaytoun resident Ayman Abu Awad said. “We are trapped inside our homes.”
A ‘EXPLOSION’ OF PREVENTABLE DEATHS IN CHILDREN

According to a survey by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian collaboration headed by UNICEF, over 90% of Gaza’s children under five only consume two or fewer food categories per day, a condition described as extreme food poverty. Similar numbers are afflicted by infectious disorders; in the previous two weeks, 70% of people have had diarrhea.
According to a survey issued on Monday, over 80% of families do not have access to clean and safe water, with an average family having one liter (quart) per person each day.

Acute malnutrition rates are 5% in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where most humanitarian help arrives, and 15% in northern Gaza, which has been shut off from food for months by the Israeli military and isolated. According to the research, Gaza’s rate was less than 1% before to the conflict.
UNICEF director Ted Chaiban said in a statement that “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.”

According to a December U.N. assessment, 25% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents are at risk of hunger. The whole population is experiencing a food crisis.
Aid organizations claim that Israeli road restrictions, continuous fighting, and the collapse of law and order as a result of Israeli attacks on the Hamas-run police force have greatly hindered the delivery of humanitarian goods inside Gaza.

Israel maintains that it does not impede the import of humanitarian commodities.
The primary humanitarian organization in Gaza, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, said earlier this month that Israel was obstructing a food supply that could feed over a million people. Israel withheld proof while accusing 12 agency staff members of being involved in the assault on October 7. Even when the organization dismissed the employees and started an independent inquiry, this prompted a number of donors to freeze the agency’s crucial financing.
Months of war with no sign of an end in sight

The conflict started when terrorists headed by Hamas broke past Israel’s strong border defenses and went on a rampage across southern Israeli villages, murdering over 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and kidnapping about 250 more. About one-fourth of the 130 hostages that the extremists currently hold are thought to be dead. The majority of the other hostages were freed during a prisoner-hostage swap that took place last year.

Israel launched one of the bloodiest and most catastrophic military operations in recent memory in response to the assault on the small coastal enclave, which has been under Israeli and Egyptian embargo since Hamas overthrew rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
The main supporter of Israel, the United States, claims it is still attempting to mediate a new cease-fire and hostage-release arrangement with Egypt and Qatar, the mediators. That seems, however, that their efforts have stagnated.

According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, as of Monday, there have been 29,092 Palestinian deaths since the conflict began, with women and children accounting for over two thirds of the casualties. The number of injured Palestinians has exceeded 69,000, surpassing the capacity of the region’s hospitals, little over half of which are even partly operational. In its tally, the government does not differentiate between military and civilian losses.

Israel claims to have killed more over 10,000 Palestinian terrorists, but it has not offered any supporting data. The military claims that it makes an effort to protect people and attributes the high number of civilian deaths on Hamas, the terrorist organization that battles in populated residential areas. According to the military, since the ground battle began in late October, 237 of its men have died.