Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), confirmed on Wednesday that malnutrition rates among children in the Gaza Strip have tripled in less than six months.
Lazzarini explained that this crisis “is not the result of a natural disaster, but rather a deliberate, avoidable act of starvation by humans,” noting that relief organizations have been prevented for half a year from bringing aid into the Strip.
He pointed to the need to enable the passage of vital aid through UNRWA and other humanitarian organizations, stressing that UNRWA teams have conducted malnutrition assessments of approximately 100,000 children under the age of five in Gaza since last March.
