Gaza: Children dying of starvation as UN food trucks turned away, say aid organisations
BMJ 2024; 384 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q619 (Published 12 March 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;384:q619
Women in Gaza are “burying their newborns every day” as they have no way to feed them and are unable to access critical medical care amid supply shortages and a collapsed healthcare system, humanitarian organisations have said.
“At least 15 children have already starved to death—and this is only the data from one hospital,” said Hiba Tibi, West Bank and Gaza country director for poverty charity Care.1 “In the north, one in six children under 2 is already so malnourished that they might not survive tomorrow.” Despite this, Tibi said “aid is still not getting in.” She continued, “The military blockade continues, impeding people’s ability to access food, cutting off humanitarian corridors that should serve as a lifeline for people in desperate need.”
On 11 March the UN reported that the death toll from malnutrition and dehydration was believed to have risen to 25, of which 21 were children.2
Humanitarian organisations have for months warned that the severely restricted access for aid to enter Gaza would lead to famine.345
UN food trucks turned away
Earlier this month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported that its attempts to deliver “desperately needed food supplies” to those starving in northern Gaza had been “largely unsuccessful” with a 14 truck convoy being turned away by the Israeli Defence Force after waiting for hours at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint on 5 March.
This came just days after the “flour massacre” on 29 February, during which the UN said more than 100 people who gathered to collect flour were estimated to have been killed during “violence unleashed by Israeli forces.”6
The Israeli military has denied this account, arguing that most people were killed in a stampede and that the military had only opened fire after soldiers became endangered.7 The UN has, however, accused Israel of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people” and has called on the country to “end its campaign of starvation and targeting of civilians.”
As aid access continues to be restricted, some countries including the US and Jordan have started air dropping supplies in Gaza. One such aid delivery reportedly killed five people after parachutes failed to open.8
WFP’s deputy executive director Carl Skau said, “Airdrops are a last resort and will not avert famine. We need entry points to northern Gaza that will allow us to deliver enough food for half a million people in desperate need.”