One in five Gaza children treated by MSF malnourished, aid group sayspublished at 09:17 British Summer Time
09:17 BST
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has released new data about malnutrition in children, pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza.
The medical aid organisation says its teams have “seen a steady and significant increase in malnourished patients” since mid-June.
Among the patients which attend its clinics and primary care centres in Gaza, MSF says, nearly one in five children are suffering from severe or moderate malnutrition. Of those being treated for malnutrition by MSF, more than half are pregnant or breastfeeding.
The charity also warns that food shortages are so severe that sometimes hospitals are unable to feed patients – and its staff are “going without food sometimes for days at a time”.
MSF notes that malnutrition is affecting “people’s ability to heal from other traumatic injuries”, with injured Gazans receiving less than half of the calories they need to properly recover. This leads to “severe medical complications, including infection, delayed healing, and often amputation”, it adds.
“This is a man-made starvation. The Israeli authorities are using food as a weapon of war, creating widespread starvation,” MSF says in its statement.